Last month’s report by IBM’s ‘threat intelligence taskforce’ highlighted how hackers ‘probably backed by a nation-state’ appeared to be trying to disrupt or steal information about the key processes to keep the newly approved Covid vaccines cold as they travel from factories to hospitals and doctors’ offices.
The economic significance of the logistics sector is huge. Trade association, LogisticsUK, has confirmed that there are over 194,000 logistics enterprises in the UK, with 2.6 million employed in the wider industry. The logistics sector has a £1 trillion turnover, contributing £130 billion Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy, which is 10.2% of the contribution to the UK non-financial business economy. In comparison, the scale of this industry is far greater than UK construction, energy and manufacturing among others.
“The logistics sector is at a major crossroad and the real winners and losers will more accurately be defined in the next couple of years”
Garbett added: “Data security at every point in a logistics system is paramount and like any IOT (internet of things) system there are many points which will need protection, and a strong culture of cybersecurity will need to exist to avoid the inevitable human error and threat from malicious human interference, which is the cause of the vast majority of cyber breaches in any system. Modern sophisticated logistics must create new types of infrastructure on a world stage to adapt to a rapidly evolving threat landscape.”
“Drones have been shown to offer a wide range of benefits to logistics operations, providing a cost-effective and environmentally responsible alternative to traditional methods, as well as relieving the burden on our already stretched road traffic system. One of the challenges, however, is the need to adopt drone technology within a disciplined, holistic strategy which supports the organisation and ‘future proofs’ what is put in place. To maintain its global competitiveness, it is now more important than ever that the UK logistics industry recognises the speed of drone technology advancement, embraces it, innovates, and stays ahead of the hackers.”