Protected data and reduced risks

Previously, industrial companies were defined by powerful engines and long production lines more than anything, but today online is increasingly replacing the assembly line and data, rather than iron ore, is set to be the most important resource in future. This is no different for our customer with its 12,700 employees and revenue of several billions.

The Bühler Group realised early on that if it wanted to expand its leading position in grain processing, pressure die-casting and surface coating methods, then digital services would be a critical key to ensure new successes. Digital services which offer the customer significant added value but have to be absolutely secure when it comes to protecting against external attacks as well as encrypting interfaces and sensitive data. The following specific examples show just how complex the challenge of digitalisation is:

Tackling food waste with data
30% of all food is wasted on the way from the field to our plates, meaning there is enormous potential for optimisation here – both in terms of economic efficiency and with regard to sustainability. The technology company makes use of the digital measurement of various production parameters. The use of networked sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT) have enabled vast reductions in food production waste and significant increases in yield.

Improved service thanks to an online portal
Machines running almost anywhere in the world are hard to maintain, except if, like the Swiss company, you use “predictive maintenance” and a digital customer portal in the private cloud. The benefits of this are that you have digital access to maintenance services and the customer service enables optimum maintenance. The option of maintaining and controlling the plants via an IoT platform guarantees a higher level of reliability and greater operational efficiency.

Reliably protecting the company crown jewels.

The opportunities that digitalisation offers for industry are therefore clear to see – but unfortunately so are the risks. These risks need to be reliably managed, primarily in the area of long-term capital goods and particularly in Industry 4.0 where valuable patents and business secrets are integrated directly into the databases.

This is because if unauthorised persons have access to computer systems, an industrial company’s crown jewels are often there for the taking, such as all internal expert knowledge that has been gained over the years, confidential project and customer information and – as is the case with our customer – a globally networked system of plants and machines. That’s why intelligent IT security solutions which ensure outstanding reliability are in demand. The following was clear to Florian Christberger Team Manager Network Services: “We are a clear leader in terms of quality, which is why we also rely on superior solutions in terms of IT security, as errors in this area would be fatal for our company!” The following statistic shows how great this error risk is in everyday corporate life: companies in Europe still take 177 days on average to notice attacks by hackers. A shocking figure!

Preventing attacks and boosting reliability.

With Airlock, attacks are identified as follows in a specific case – web applications are protected against authorised access by means of upstream authentication and a dynamic whitelist filtering method. As part of this process, Airlock Gateway analyses all traffic between users and services and blocks attempted attacks even before hackers can access internal systems. The Airlock Anomaly Shield provides additional protection here, as it can also detect unknown types of attacks and unwanted bots using machine learning.

A high level of availability is just as important as protecting against attacks and Airlock also offers impressive service in this case, as reliability of at least 99.99% is a key security feature in order to prevent long downtimes, even in the event of serious attacks.

In discussions, our contact mentioned two additional aspects that impressed him about Airlock – the out-standing service and reliable support, along with the future viability of the security software. The support from an Airlock expert is not the only key argument for the customer, but the modular structure and expandability are also clear benefits of the Secure Access Hubs from Ergon.

If data is the future, then what is data security?

The following statement is as true for many customers as it is for the Swiss industrial company – the security solutions used have to be as high quality as the in-house products are professional, as if data is the future, then that means that data security also ensures the company’s future viability.