Supply Chain Leaders Discuss Cyber Security and Benefits of Technology

Moving on to the critical issue of cyber security during the Technology Session of the Future of Logistics Conference Part II, moderator Lars Jensen asked the panellists what steps they were taking to minimize the impact of cyber attacks on their day-to-day business as the supply chain gets more and more connected.

Michael Schneider, Executive VP of Siemens Logistics stated that cyber security plays a much bigger role in the supply chain than it did 5 years ago. As we move data on to the cloud we need to build networks that are able to immediately isolate their different parts in case of an attack to keep it from spreading further.

Mr Schneider said that cyber security is a core element of any developments at Siemens Logistics moving forward. “Connectivity will take things to the cloud further and further so you got to be prepared to manage these kind of things in the future.”

Cyber attacks cannot be eliminated altogether but we can set up our systems so that the damage they could do could be minimised as much as possible, concluded Mr Schneider.

Irina Albanese, Head of Innovation MEA at DHL highlighted the importance of educating and training employees to be vigilant about cyber attacks and not allow the initial malware from coming into the system.

Regular training of staff on cyber security issues should be part of logistics companies’ strategy, concluded Ms Albanese.

Maximillian Weigelt, Director Business Development, Middle East and South Africa at project44 said that when cyberattacks hit carriers or freight forwarders the cargo owners were not aware of it because they did have full visibility of their cargo’s status.

Prior to the pandemic project44 spoke to many customers and asked how they follow the movement of their cargo consignments and discovered that most of them were still using lists and they had to track cargo by making phone calls.

Apart from data on your own cargo project44 visibility solutions sourced and analysed data from different parts of the supply chain to provide customers with viable alternatives in the event of emergencies and disruptions like cyberattacks.

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