Introduction to Cybersecurity in the Construction Sector

Imagine a world where a single oversight can instantly compromise a project detail, a plan, or a financial estimate—all due to a simple oversight. The digital transition brings significant opportunities to construction. However, it also poses numerous cybersecurity challenges.

The Current Landscape of Cybersecurity in Construction

The evolution of construction projects has made digital exchanges not just common but essential. Each data exchange forms a crucial piece of the puzzle for the completion of a project. Yet, every interaction can expose project data to malicious actors.

Sector-Specific Risks

What sets the construction sector apart are the types of information exchanged: energy network plans, security network plans, technical building management information, contractual documents containing project stakeholders’ coordinates, and project financial data, etc. This information holds great value for malicious groups (hackers).

These sector-specific risks do not exclude the most common origins. Remember, most cybersecurity breaches stem from human errors. For example, opening an email attachment from a sender you think you know.

The Consequences of a Cyberattack in the Construction Sector

Understanding the consequences of a cyberattack is crucial. An intrusion into your company’s IT infrastructure can be disastrous both in the short and long term.

In 90% of cyberattacks, malicious groups take your data hostage and demand a ransom for its release. Understand that this ransom demand is just a smokescreen to hide the hackers’ true intentions.

While they keep you busy trying to ensure or restart your operations, they are busy selling your stolen data in a digital space unknown to you: the dark web.

A social security card, an ID card, a passport from a hospital cyberattack are sold for 4 dollars each on the dark web. What do you think is the market value of a PDF file of a technical plan, or the IFC file of a BIM model?

Another major impact is the cost associated with disruptions. A delayed site will incur significant costs. Without access to information, operations will be suspended, causing contractual penalties and harming the reputation of the company or consortium involved.

Clients’ and partners’ trust is also at stake. If a company does not ensure the security of the data it processes, its ability to carry out large projects is questioned. The consequences of such a loss of trust, although difficult to measure, are numerous and potentially devastating.

Beyond financial costs and reputation, psychological effects on employees can be observed. The disruption of their work and the persistent feeling of insecurity affect their productivity or even their loyalty.

Encryption and Decryption: A Necessary Shield

Given these constant threats, as shown in the insert below, it is essential to take protective measures. Anticipation is your first line of defense. Reacting after the fact will be too late; you must actively safeguard against these threats. The main measures include:

Training personnel to understand and assess cyber risk.
Establishing data governance to control who has access to information, where, and how it is shared.
Defining a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP): procedures that are valid in the case of a cyberattack, water damage, fire, etc.

You must combine these basic measures with additional cybersecurity measures to secure your data.

	2021	2022	2023
Data Breach	39%	49%	52%
Ransomware	31%	45%	49%
Enterprise Email Compromise	42%	51%	51%
Internal Attacks	27%	39%	40%

Distribution of cyberattack types according to Splunk’s 2020 IT security predictions report.

Data encryption is one of the additional cybersecurity measures to integrate into your data protection strategy. The sum of all these measures will slow down or even deter hackers from accessing your data.

Data encryption offers a first line of defense against theft and malicious dissemination. Even if cybercriminals intercept the data, it remains unreadable.

This data encryption measure may seem like a daily constraint for construction actors. Constrictive cybersecurity will be bypassed by users. Therefore, it is necessary to rely on cybersecurity solutions that meet the needs and demands of your technical teams. Choosing solutions that facilitate cybersecurity is a crucial challenge for complying with company security rules.

ScredIn, Your Ally in This Transition

Given these challenges, as you can understand, it is crucial to adopt effective solutions to ensure your cybersecurity.

Digitization and digitalization are necessary steps for construction actors. They require careful consideration of the cyber risks involved.

ScredIn offers advanced encryption and decryption automation solutions to secure your data and exchanges between construction and engineering actors. Our automated processes eliminate human error risks and allow your teams to work with peace of mind.

Choosing reliable partners like ScredIn enables you to navigate this new era with confidence. Do not neglect the security of your projects; the survival of your company depends on it. It’s time to act.

This introduction provides a clear vision of the challenges you face and lays the foundation for