![](https://www.freightwaves.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/08/Article_NMFTA-1200x160.jpg)
Cybersecurity breaches are an increasingly common threat to the trucking industry that cause devastating financial harm that is usually hard to return back from.
“Just about all breaches end in a lawsuit. On average, those lawsuits are upwards of $10 million per company simply to get back in your feet,” said Antwan Banks, director of enterprise security on the National Motor Freight Traffic Association (NMFTA), “not to say how much business you could lose due to loss of name recognition.”
The NMFTA is a nonprofit membership organization representing the interests of less-than-truckload carriers. It provides cybersecurity support for the industry in addition to critical services like classification standards, identification codes and digital operation standards. The organization is committed to providing motor carriers with cybersecurity expertise and resources that the industry can use to guard from cyberattacks.
With such high stakes, motor carriers of all sizes must take motion before breaches can occur.
Banks sat down with FreightWaves to debate what carriers have to know concerning the differences between enterprise and asset networks and the way they will improve their cybersecurity.
Enterprise vs. asset networks
Enterprise and asset (also known as vehicle or fleet) networks are made up of various devices and components.
Enterprise networks comprise an organization’s back-office systems, like servers, laptops and desktops. Asset networks, also known as fleet or vehicle networks, include telematics systems, Controller Area Networks and connectors.
Banks said that they require two different sorts of skill sets as they each involve different equipment. Nevertheless, as a result of the interconnectivity of asset and enterprise networks, firms must have strong enterprise security to be able to protect their asset networks. If bad actors gain access to an enterprise network, they might use a tactic called pivoting to hop between networks.
“[Hackers] are gonna benefit from that trust relationship to leap from the enterprise network over to the fleet network and that way … in the event that they’re attempting to encrypt ransomware, they will deliver the payload for the ransomware to the fleet side. In the event that they’re attempting to stop a truck, or decelerate a truck, they will execute their malicious activities,” Banks said.
Email phishing is essentially the most common way hackers gain network access. Other tactics like voice phishing, water holding and latest AI voice impersonations all also pose major threats to enterprise systems.
Find out how to protect against cyberthreats
The No. 1 thing Banks recommends firms do to guard against breaches is user awareness training.
“An organization can spend tens of tens of millions of dollars on the most recent and best cybersecurity, but when their user is socially engineered and clicks on a phishing email, then they’re going to bypass all that security,” Banks said.
Patching vulnerabilities can also be paramount because hackers are in search of weak points to use. Old and outdated systems that may’t be patched must be protected with compensating controls, Banks added.
Proactively monitoring your network to discover anything unusual is critical to get ahead of issues.
“The last way you should discover that your network has been hacked is when it has been locked and encrypted,” Banks added.
To learn more about cybersecurity threats impacting the trucking industry, the general public can attend the NMFTA’s Digital Solutions Conference in Houston from Oct. 22-25. The conference will concentrate on cybersecurity threats facing vehicle and enterprise networks inside the trucking industry. Attendees will hear from experts in the sphere from organizations just like the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration.
Click here to learn more concerning the NMFTA.
The post Find out how to protect your enterprise from enterprise and vehicle network breaches appeared first on FreightWaves.