Part 1 - Challenges and Opportunities

The most critical cybersecurity-related challenges faced by the food & beverage industry include:

Ensuring Production and Food Safety: As production processes become more interconnected and reliant on digital systems, the vulnerability to cyber threats increases, posing a substantial risk to the industry's operational continuity. A breach in cybersecurity can lead to significant production downtime, disrupting supply chains and causing financial losses. Furthermore, a cyberattack could compromise the integrity of food safety protocols, potentially resulting in contamination or tampering of products.
Securing Legacy Devices: Many legacy devices pose security risks, becoming potential entry points for cyber threats once interconnected. The difficulty in patching outdated equipment originally not designed for such updates makes it even more challenging.

Recognizing these challenges also presents opportunities:

Building a cybersecurity awareness culture: Companies can invest in training their staff, fostering a culture of cybersecurity awareness, and becoming more resilient. For more than five years, Sidel has been actively developing such culture with employees through trainings, events and awareness campaigns.
Building Trust: In response to the challenges, Food & Beverage companies are increasing their investments in cybersecurity protection. This not only protects the company’s assets but also builds trust with consumers and partners, who benefit from these responsible actions.
Building Partnership: Sidel is building a community with its suppliers and customers to work together, exchange knowledge and best practices, and improve collective resilience during crisis. This proactive approach holds the potential to notably enhance the industry's ability to withstand cyber threats.

Stay tuned to explore more about how new cybersecurity European regulations can impact our industry.