We also rely on management information systems to produce information for business decision-making and planning and to supporte-commerce activities. Failure to maintain an adequate digital platform or to make additional investment in our digital platform to supporte-commerce activities and improve our customer experience could have a material adverse impact on our business through lost sales opportunities.
If we are unable to maintain our management information systems, including our IT infrastructure, to support critical business operations, produce information for business decision-making activities and supporte-commerce activities, we could experience a material adverse impact on our business or an inability to timely and accurately report our financial results.
Cyber-security incidents, including data security breaches, ransomware or computer viruses, could harm our business by exposing us to various liabilities, disrupting our delivery of products and services and damaging our reputation.
We rely extensively on our management information technology systems and those of third parties to operate our business and store proprietary information about our products and intellectual property. Additionally, we and others acting on our behalf receive, process, store and transmit confidential data, including “personally identifiable information,” with respect to employees, vendors, customers and others. As the recent rise in cyber-security incidents around the world indicates, all management information technology systems are vulnerable. Despite the security controls we have in place, our facilities, systems and procedures, and those of our third-party service providers, are at risk of security breaches, acts of vandalism, ransomware, software viruses, misplaced or lost data, programming and/or human errors or other similar events. In particular, unauthorized access to our computer systems or stored data could result in the theft or improper disclosure of proprietary, confidential or sensitive information, the deletion or modification of records or interruptions in our operations. These cyber-security risks increase when we transmit information from one location to another, including transmissions over the Internet or other electronic networks. We employ a variety of security breach countermeasures and security controls designed to mitigate these risks, but we cannot guarantee that all breach attempts can be successfully thwarted by these measures as the sophistication of attacks increases. As cyber threats continue to evolve, we may be required to expend additional resources to mitigate new and emerging threats while continuing to enhance our information security capabilities or to investigate and remediate security vulnerabilities.
In addition, defects in some of the hardware or software we develop and sell, or in their implementation by our customers, could also result in unauthorized access to our customers’ and/or consumers’ networks. Any such events could result in theft of trade secrets and intellectual property; give rise to legal proceedings; cause us to incur increased costs for insurance premiums, security, remediation and regulatory compliance; subject us to civil and criminal penalties; expose us to liabilities to our customers, employees, vendors, governmental authorities or other third parties; allow others to unfairly compete with us; disrupt our delivery of products and services; expose the confidential information of our clients and others; and have a negative impact on our reputation, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
If our integrated global manufacturing operations suffer production or shipping delays, we may have difficulty meeting customer demands.
Disruption of our ability to produce at or distribute from our facilities could adversely affect our ability to manufacture products at our other manufacturing facilities in a cost-effective and timely manner. In particular, some of our manufacturing facilities rely on aging production equipment and information technology infrastructure, and if we fail to properly maintain or update this equipment, it could affect our ability to manufacture or ship products. Other disruptions, including labor disturbances, fire, electrical outage, natural disaster, acts of violence or terrorism, shipping interruptions or some other catastrophic event could adversely affect our ability to manufacture products at our other manufacturing facilities in a cost-effective and timely manner, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.
10