Every company must assume that sooner or later a cyber attack on its own infrastructure may occur. If such an attack is successful, it is particularly important to quickly restore operational systems to a stable and secure working mode. The VDMA provides an overview of emergency measures and contact details for authorities and service providers who can provide support in such cases. Examples of affected companies in the mechanical engineering sector also show how necessary such emergency assistance is. Ransomware attacks can paralyze all systems, from administration and web servers to production - worldwide. The damage can quickly run into the tens of millions, and the effects of such attacks can keep the affected companies busy for years to come.

Incidents involving ransomware in mechanical and plant engineering increased sharply in 2019. Almost every trade association in the VDMA recorded at least one major incident at member companies, the association announced. Ransomware is basically the infection with malware and subsequent encryption of entire data records and IT systems for the purpose of blackmail. The special feature in mechanical and plant engineering is infections right down to the production level, deep into robots, machine tools or logistics systems.

"It's not enough to just focus on defending against cyber attacks," says Steffen Zimmermann, Head of the Industrial Security Competence Center. "Every company must prepare for an emergency." He believes that small and medium-sized companies are particularly at risk: "They often lack the necessary emergency preparedness concepts and crisis plans to know what steps to take in the event of a ransomware attack." With the emergency aid paper, the VDMA has therefore joined forces with mechanical and plant engineering experts from the "Information Security" working group to bring together the answers to basic questions following a ransomware infection. The ransomware paper is available free of charge from the VDMA at industrialsecurity.vdma.org.

Help against hackers: corporate cyber security
Together with VSMA, the VDMA's insurance broker, the "Unternehmen Cybersicherheit" initiative was launched. The core of the offer is a cyber information portal that aims to support entrepreneurs and IT managers in the fight against hackers. At www.unternehmen-cybersicherheit.de, interested parties and those affected can find practical IT tips and tools, such as a sample IT emergency plan. as