Henkel has more than 150 manufacturing sites globally across two business divisions. To improve OT security, it was important to make this a joint priority between supply chain organizations and the cybersecurity team. The cybersecurity risks had to be put into a business context, as well as in the light of staff safety, supply continuity and product quality.

In addition to general awareness measures, tangible, eye opening interventions were identified to drive home the significance of OT security: an internal red team conducted. an actual compromise of a manufacturing site, compromising programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human-machine interfaces (HMIs), etc. – and capturing it on video. 

This exercise made the risks tangible not only for personnel at the manufacturing site but through the video, to counterparts at other sites too. It demonstrated the resulting impact clearly and transparently, not only in abstract risk or cyber terms but tangibly from a supply-chain perspective.