Cyber crimes are predicted to cost the global economy $445 billion annually. (Ref: Mc Kinsey report) Let that sink in.
63% of data breaches come from exploiting internal weak points in a company’s customer and vendor network.
The Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry has experienced a surge in cyber-attacks in recent years. These attacks can have serious consequences for businesses and consumers alike, including financial losses, damage to reputations, and the compromise of sensitive data. In response to this trend, it is essential that the CPG industry takes proactive steps to address cybersecurity issues comprehensively with a strong data driven approach.
The CPG industry operates on a global scale, with hundreds of brands and thousands of partners. Despite this decentralized structure, CPG companies strive to function as one cohesive entity while also operating in silos.
The CPG industry has three important dimensions to it:
Within these, there are multiple nuances - some companies have their own manufacturing, while some outsource the same. Distribution is a combination of brand/market mix, trade operations, distribution channels etc. while Product life-cycle sees new trends such as Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) models of late. This shows the dynamic nature of the CPG industry.
For one, CPG companies face similar problems as retail companies, with PCI (credit card & financial information) & PII (personal information) security, but bigger problems like ransomware do not bring the company to a standstill. Also, just like the retail companies – CPGs look to acquisitions as part of the expanding business outlook, which brings with it unprecedented challenges.
Cyber-attacks on the CPG industry are not restricted to this either – the plant operations could be hacked and controlled – thereby taking over the controls of the most basic infrastructure such as HVAC, electricity etc. Many huge manufacturing plants are smart factories, that run remotely, and the number of such plants is only going to increase in the coming times. Such plants are heavily dependent on optimum cyber-security for continued operations.
Most of the CPG companies in the past would have been focusing on the pillars of business and incorporating insights from customer behaviour etc to grow, and cyber-security would typically have come as an after-thought. Not any longer!
With increasingly automated and remotely run manufacturing plants, stricter laws w.r.t data privacy and huge losses that run into billions of dollars, the CPG companies have started looking at high-tech cyber-security measures that uses AI and block chain technology to protect its interests.
Apart from this, consumer companies cannot afford to lose customer trust and its hard-earned reputation, which in case of any event may never be able to re-establish itself in the market.
Data privacy laws and regulatory compliance is getting stricter by the day, different countries are creating their own set of regulations to be followed, failing which the companies are liable to compensate heavily. Therefore, CPG companies have now taken the bull by the horns and started taking cyber-security assessment and protection very seriously.
Alfahive is helping CPG companies to build a security-first culture and keeping pace with the ever dynamic CPG industry while ensuring continued cyber-security.
How do we do this? We use real-time data, AI & Machine Learning (ML) technology as well as quantification algorithms to predict the likely loss in case of a cyber-attack, apart from highlighting most vulnerable aspects of the business processes.
Our expertise in CPG industry and its B2B, B2C consumer operations, distribution channels and manufacturing aspects etc have helped us to build a customized model for best results.
A dynamic industry such as CPG requires an equally dynamic cyber-security partner who understands it thoroughly, identify its weak spots, predict likely events and with real-time data, help it to stay secure. Alfahive does just that, armed with data and insights along with personalised recommendations, for CPG companies to stay ahead of the game and win!
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