Almost half of industrial companies experience network problems monthly

One in three industrial companies encounter regular network problems, with 45% of businesses experiencing them a few times a month, while only 12% of respondents stated they face such challenges once a year or less. These were the concerning findings highlighted by Kaspersky in its report, which investigating the network and information security challenges faced by geo-distributed companies.

Industrial companies usually operate using a geographically distributed infrastructure with factories, branch offices and other critical facilities located in different sites. This peculiarity can lead to a series of problems such as logistical issues, communication barriers, difficulties in coordinating operations, maintaining consistent quality standards and ensuring compliance with local regulations.

In addition to the challenges mentioned above, industrial enterprises with multiple locations regularly face IT infrastructure and information security issues. According to the Kaspersky report titled ‘Managing geographically distributed businesses: challenges and solutions’, 49% of manufacturing companies found the effective detection and resolution of cybersecurity incidents was the most challenging task. They also cited monitoring the implementation of security measures (46%) and building a cohesive security policy (42%) as significant difficulties[1].

Almost 30% of respondents stated that they regularly experienced network problems such as network failures or outages, poor performance of services and applications, and inadequate connection capacity. Thirty-eight percent of them encountered such challenges one to three times a month, while 28% faced them every couple of months, and 7% even experienced them every week.

Regarding the time required to restore the network after a failure or an outage, the majority of respondents (74%) said they usually needed between 1 and 5 hours, while 15% stated they spent no more than 1 hour, and 10% required up to one full working day. Downtimes like these lead to significant financial and reputational damage and can cost thousands of dollars per minute and even more per hour. Therefore, it’s important for companies to prevent possible network interruptions and they should be capable of repairing them rapidly if they arise.

"Network issues in industrial enterprises often result in delays, a decline in production levels, financial losses, and reputational risks. When a network goes down, communication and business processes are interrupted, employees lose access to crucial information, and all this leads to a drop in productivity and even erodes customer trust. Therefore, companies should protect their operations to ensure business continuity. By understanding the potential causes of network problems and implementing timely strategic measures, companies can combat these challenges and safeguard all the processes," says Maxim Kaminsky, Business Development Manager (Secure Access Service Edge) at Kaspersky.

To minimize the possibility of network problems and build reliable comprehensive protection for all assets and processes in industrial companies, Kaspersky recommends:

• Use OT XDR platforms such as Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity (KICS), offering centralized asset and risk management, security and compliance audit, and unparalleled scalability, providing industrial networks and automation systems with reliable protection. With the recent update, it now enables the support of 100 monitoring points and provides unlimited options for building new software-defined network between company branches.
• If your company requires a separate solution to manage its corporate network from a single console, use a specialized solution like Kaspersky SD-WAN. This product integrates separate communication channels and network functions across companies, and improves application performance, facilitating the construction of reliable networks and maintaining geo-distributed businesses.
• If companies need advanced protection, they can combine both solutions. The integration of Kaspersky SD-WAN and Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity for Networks enables companies to transfer a copy of industrial network traffic so that they can establish a centralized monitoring and protection system. The synergy of the two products makes distributed infrastructures scalable, providing high-quality network service and prioritizing ICS/SCADA traffic.

To read the full report  ‘Managing geographically distributed businesses: challenges and solutions’, please visit the website.

[1] The research provides a deeper insight into the network and information security challenges faced by geo-distributed companies and highlights solutions organizations employ to overcome these difficulties. Within this research, Kaspersky questioned 1,000 respondents from 20 countries: Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, USA, France, Germany, the UK, Spain, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Singapore, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia.