PlastikCity Insurance Blog // Cyber Insurance in the Plastics Sector

In 2023, the average cost of a ransomware attack hit around £1.4 million, with an average downtime of 24 days. As manufacturing processes become more reliant on digital technologies, the risks posed by cyberattacks are growing rapidly. In this blog, PlastikCity Insurance explores the unique cybersecurity challenges faced by the plastics industry and offers insights on how businesses can safeguard themselves against these threats.

As manufacturing becomes increasingly automated, cyberattacks targeting production systems can cause serious disruption. A successful attack could halt operations, affect product quality, and delay delivery schedules—leading to financial losses and reputational damage. In a highly competitive sector like plastics manufacturing, such interruptions can put customer relationships at risk and impact long-term contracts.

The plastics sector has its own additional set of challenges and considerations:

Production Disruption-Attacks on automated production systems, affecting product quality and delivery schedules.

Intellectual Property Theft– Loss of proprietary formulations, design processes, or manufacturing techniques impacting your market-share.

Supply Chain Vulnerabilities– Compromised systems hitting suppliers or customers relationships and causing caserviscading issues.

Data Breaches– Exposure of sensitive customer data or confidential business information.

Ransomware Attacks– Locking of critical systems or data, impacting production and causing financial strain.

Hacktivism

Not all cyberattacks are financially motivated and, unfortunately, due to the nature of our industry, hacktivism is now as big an issue as any criminal incident. A quick web search of the phrase “Cyber Attacks Plastics Industry” suggests there are two key issues:

Political Attacks

The business is specifically targeted, the attack planned to cause the most disruption and, worryingly, the survival of the business is arbitrary.

Criminal Attacks

The business is specifically targeted, the attack planned to cause the most disruption and, worryingly, the survival of the business is arbitrary. Victims are usually selected at random, through a mass mailing of ransomware or malware. The intention is to either gain monies through ransom or the on-selling of illegally obtained data.

Risk Management Practices

For both types of attack, the focus is on mitigation; what companies can do to try and prevent attacks from happening.

The fundamental mitigation strategy should be the same, and remains the best way of protecting a business from the unwanted attentions of criminals. While cyber insurance can provide critical financial support, it’s important to complement it with robust cybersecurity practices.

Regular Updates and Patches– Ensure all systems are up-to-date with the latest security patches.

Employee Training– Educate staff on cybersecurity best practices and phishing attack recognition.

Access Controls– Implement strong access controls and authentication mechanisms.

Incident Response Plan– Develop and test an incident response plan to quickly address and mitigate breaches.

The purchase of Cyber Insurance will help companies build robust IRPs by establishing effective incident investigation & recovery procedures and, most importantly, protect from any financial fall-out.

Ultimately, we need to treat cyber criminals and saboteurs like commercial entities and, much like everyone else, they don’t want to go out of business. So, they will continue to evolve and develop how they operate. With the growth of AI and deep-fake technology, the challenges of preventing an attack will only get harder.

Unfortunately, no strategy is 100% foolproof and all businesses, large and small, have to prepare for the strong likelihood of a system breach at some point.

PlastikCity Insurance policies are arranged and administered by PHL Insurance Brokers Limited*.

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