The launch of a white paper co-developed by Waterstons and Cundall looks at how safe our buildings are from the threat of a cyber-attack.
The idea of a building being hacked is keeping many asset owners and facility managers awake at night across Australia.
Having recently witnessed the spate of cyber-attacks in the business world, the threat landscape for the built environment is very real and present.
Headquartered in Sydney, Waterstons Australia is part of a global business offering bespoke technology solutions including end-to-end services with 24/7 solutions across Cyber Security, Technology Consulting, Managed Services, Data & Analytics and more, to companies throughout Australia.
Cundall are global multi-disciplinary engineers and sustainability consultants who work to improve the relationship between people and places through integrated innovation.
Through smart building retrofits, Cundall’s engineers benefit the wellbeing, safety and experience of those who live, work, play and stay in them.
Together Cundall and Waterstons have developed How Safe is Your Building?, a comprehensive white paper to unpack the threat landscape and red-flag vulnerabilities that may not have been considered, while explaining best practice strategies for protecting people, properties and business operations.
As smart buildings get smarter – and older buildings are retrofitted with the latest technology – Cyber Security must be a part of the conversation at every step.
Ryan O’Kell, Head of Cyber Security at Waterstons, recently scoped the Australian IP Address space, and was very quickly able to identify 5,956 Building Management Systems open to the wider internet.
While this does not necessarily present an immediate risk, the bigger picture here is that there are 5,956 buildings that have their entire management system accessible from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
If just one of those is misconfigured or is missing vendor security patches, it represents an entire building’s systems can be manipulated by anyone with an internet connection anywhere in the world.
As Managing Director of Waterstons, Charlie knows firsthand what can happen when Cyber Security isn’t front and centre in the built environment.
He said: “This issue isn’t going away and with our research in this paper, we can almost see that the AEC industry and these buildings will be the next big target – we’ve already seen it happen.
“The paper brings to life and to light not only the downfalls of Cyber Security in the industry, but it highlights the importance and vital role boards play, the vital role humans play and the next steps to secure the industry.
Cundall Partner Julian Sutherland, who recently relocated to become Design Director of the Sydney practice, has seen how building controls, automation, AI and cloud-hosted building performance analytics have reduced energy waste and increased the quality of spaces for people.
Sutherland said: “Our global team works with clients who recognise the importance of smart building technologies as the enabling architecture for improving existing buildings and progressing towards an all-electric, net zero built environment.
“But we also know that getting cyber security settings right is essential to ensure business processes and asset performance are always protected.”
