Pet Food Processing - May 2024 - 65

OPERATIONS
SECURING
operations
Pet food processors work to mitigate
vulnerabilities in operational technology.
By Allison Gibeson | petfoodprocessing@sosland.com
A
All segments of manufacturing face a range of cybersecurity
vulnerabilities, and the pet food industry is no exception.
As processors incorporate more automation and
operational technology into facilities, care must be taken
to ensure that bad actors aren't able to exploit businesses.
" The biggest challenges faced by pet food processors
are safeguarding sensitive or proprietary information
and avoiding profit-impacting service interruptions
caused, in one way or another, by threat actors, " said
Kyle Banks, technical resource partner for NorthWind
Technical Services, Sabetha, Kan.
Attacks are driven by a desire to make money, so
any business is vulnerable, said John Hoffman, former
senior research fellow with the Food Protection and
Defense Institute.
Assessing the risk
Critical infrastructure industries including energy, health
care and communications are often seen as especially important
to protect from cybersecurity attacks due to the
large-scale ramifications of an attack on such segments.
The food and agriculture segment is another area of crucial
infrastructure, and any attack on the food supply or agriculture
industry can impact pet food processors due to the
interconnectedness of food businesses and supply chains.
As many pet food companies are owned by human
food companies, an attack at an upper-level facility or a
sister company could directly impact pet food products,
said Adam Pichoff, director of software engineering at
Allpax. As a result, pet food processors need to manage
cybersecurity across both computers and servers in their
information technology infrastructure, as well as the
automation equipment that comprises their operational
management technologies.
From an information technology perspective, data
breaches of actors attempting to steal intellectual property
is one of the biggest cybersecurity threats across the
board. When it comes to operations, automation and
other technologies have helped processors create more
efficiencies, but at the same time it has created more
vulnerabilities.
" All the automation equipment is networked - it's
now visible on the facility's network, " Pichoff said. " You
end up with this need to separate but then also integrate
the two technologies. As more and more equipment is
brought online and connected - that's potential targets. "
Joe Agee, enterprise business development lead for
the network and security services business at Rockwell
Automation, Milwaukee, echoed the importance of focusing
on operational technology as a part of a company-wide
approach to cybersecurity.
" In the past, people used to think of security by obwww.petfoodprocessing.net
| May 2024 | PET FOOD PROCESSING 65
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Pet Food Processing - May 2024

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