Cybersecurity specialist Trend Micro has spent a period of six months investigating the threats that occur in networked production under real conditions. To this end, the experts set a bait in the form of a honeypot, which was a worthwhile target for potential attackers, namely the networked operational technology environment of a factory. The attacks recorded, which were mostly banal, aimed, among other things, at compromising the systems for mining crypto-currencies and for fraudulent tricks.

The experts were also able to identify two different ransomware attacks that pose a continuously growing threat to companies . The experts therefore advise small and medium-sized companies in particular to adopt established best practices. These include security solutions specially designed for the Smart Factory. Even strict guidelines for access control and the limitation of open ports in the network can contribute to putting a stop to simple attacks.