Cyber security on site: are you ready for it?

From tablets for viewing building plans to drones with a camera for visual inspection: digital technology is now an integral part of building sites. And there’s more than one good reason for that. For example, digitalisation makes it possible to optimise processes, deploy materials and people more efficiently and, ultimately, to reduce costs. Furthermore, it allows for better monitoring of the site itself and generally increases safety on construction sites.

Data explosion

“As in other sectors, the digitalisation wave in construction is inevitably accompanied by a rapid and exponential increase in the amount of data created, accessed or modified,” says Bruno Favarger, Product Manager for Cyber Security at Orange. “Digital building plans and building models, drawings, documents and personal data are constantly being processed, stored and shared. Processes in the construction industry are increasingly based on software systems and dependent on those same systems to ensure rapid communication and verifiable data. In such an environment, failures and data leaks can obviously have major consequences. This makes it imperative to provide a secure and appropriate strategy for ensuring the security of your data – and therefore indirectly the security of your sites and your employees at those sites as well.”

Safety first

“Each construction company must identify the specific risks in order to design a relevant safety strategy,” Le Clerc says. “Specific characteristics such as the system used by subcontractors, staff turnover, the number of terminals on a site or the physical safety of staff are all elements that must be taken into account. In a mobile environment like construction, safety goes hand in hand with the digitalisation of processes.”

As the construction industry deploys new digital technologies on its path to modernisation, the cyber security landscape is also changing – and often faster than expected, he warns. “To stay ahead in this area too, a flexible security approach is indispensable. This means that your security strategy must adapt to the changes in your environment and the threat must be monitored through regular assessments.” 

Digital Construction Day

Would you like more information about this kind of approach? On Wednesday 27 October, the Confederation of Belgian Construction Companies organised the first edition of the Digital Construction Day at the BEL in Brussels, in collaboration with the BBRI‘s Digital Construction Cluster. Bruno Favarger was one of the closing speakers at this event, which focused on digital front-runners in construction. He addressed the importance of cyber security on construction sites.