Data security, the key argument of new CMMS

Data security is a major challenge for all businesses, regardless of size. Indeed, these are often the very core of their activity. However, risks are often underestimated, both by SMEs in general but also by some large companies.

In the field of maintenance and GMAO, too often seen as not very strategic and can be managed “the old fashioned way”, this observation is particularly true. But contrary to some preconceived ideas, the security of data related to maintenance management is just as important as that of other areas of the business. To improve it, the Next generation CMMS is the best solution.

Data security, a crucial issue for all businesses

IT security issues can have a significant impact on business growth and revenue. It is therefore no coincidence that, as early as 2016, 61% of French business leaders said they were concerned about the risks of cybercrime, according to a report from the consulting firm PWC. However, these risks are not always well identified.

What are the security risks for businesses?

According to the same report, financial losses caused by computer security incidents were estimated at 3.7 billion dollars in France in 2015, and this figure is increasing every year. These incidents can have various causes:

• fraudulent emails;
• identity theft;
• malicious acts caused by internal security issues;
• infection of workstations by viruses;
• loss of sensitive information;
• false manipulations.

To deal with these risks, more and more businesses, especially SMEs, are using cloud technology, which offers great flexibility and reduces the costs involved in implementing good IT security. This solution is generally a good choice, but it must respect certain measures such as the encryption of stored data and the systematic authentication of users with a complex password.

Data loss, a neglected risk

La data security is too often seen only in terms of external threats. However, data loss due solely to internal business factors is a frequent phenomenon with significant consequences.

Data loss can have a variety of causes. These are sometimes of hardware origin, due to a failure in the IT infrastructure, linked to a failure of servers or workstations, due to lack of maintenance or normal wear and tear. In some cases, these failures lead to the loss of important and/or sensitive data, essential to the functioning of the company.

Sometimes it's accidental deletions that cause data loss. However, these human errors are only possible in the absence of systems to avoid them.

Manage data access well

Good data access management significantly reduces the risk of data loss due to human error. On the one hand, it involves making teams aware of data security, but also by defining an internal security policy to define the rights and authorizations of each user. To be effective, it must rely on relevant and effective tools, especially in the field of maintenance.

Ensuring data security with next-generation CMMS

The maintenance of industrial machines and equipment relies on a large amount of data. Without these, neither follow-up nor strategy is possible. That's why the data security concerns this sector of the company at least as much as other activities. This is all the more true since, in certain fields of activity, maintenance management is subject to specific standards.

How does next-generation CMMS manage maintenance data?

One CMMS tool records all data related to the maintenance of equipment, but also to the stock of spare parts: maintenance plans, technical characteristics and activity of the machines, maintenance operations, etc. A Next generation CMMS as Mobility Work stores all this information in a secure cloud, which provides guarantees that are impossible to consider when keeping the data within the company.

Cloud and data encryption

Mobility Work stores all of its customers' data on the secure servers of the AWS Cloud (Amazon Web Service), which also provides companies like Netflix, Airbnb or Spotify. AWS is one of the most reliable providers and has a large number of security certificates, which all of its customers benefit from.

In addition, Mobility Work applies two levels of security to all data managed by the application. The first is a system for filtering user requests by Cloudflare, a site security service. In addition, the very infrastructure of the Mobility Work software is located on private servers, which makes it impossible to apply vulnerability scans, a method often used before malicious intrusions.

Finally, all the data processed by the application is encrypted from end to end, from user data when they connect (“encryption in transit”) to information stored on the AWS server (“encryption at rest”). Therefore, no interception by an external element is possible.

Optimizing access to data thanks to next-generation CMMS

With the Mobility Work app, you can set up data access in a precise and optimized way, for each equipment or group of equipment, each dashboard or each report. There are 3 levels of confidentiality, which correspond to who will be able to access the data:

• my factory (internal network);
• my industrial group (several factories);
• the community (public but anonymized information).

The first level is the equivalent of a completely private network. No information is accessible to people outside of this site. The second level corresponds to a set of factories on the scale of the same industrial group. This option allows information sharing that is both easy and secure, as GMAO classics cannot provide. The third level, that of the Mobility Work maintenance community, is used to exchange experiences, for example between users of the same machine, in order to optimize maintenance.

Meet specific data standards

Finally, some businesses are subject to specific data management standards. This is the case, for example, in the pharmaceutical industry, where the 21 CFR Part 11 standard applies to all productions intended for the North American market. This standard requires, among other things, strict and advanced management of user access and rights, a log of all connections and the definition of precise hierarchical schemes for the approval of certain data. For meet these criteria in maintenance management, adopt a Next generation CMMS is by far the best solution.

Today, the data security is both more important and more complex to ensure than before the widespread use of new technologies. It requires the adoption of tools adapted both to current challenges and to their users, in particular in the field of maintenance. That's why the Next generation CMMS offered by Mobility Work is the best solution to ensure that your maintenance data is protected against all types of risks.