Protecting Manufacturing Industry From Data Theft, Attacks on IIoT and disrupting factory operations

The risk of cyber attacks is something that can significantly damage factories effectiveness and efficiency. Productivity is the key criteria when it comes to the manufacturing sector and with growing automation, IIoT, machine learning and global supply chains the attempts of cybercriminals to break the cycle and compromise data grows bigger and bigger.

Every couple of months there’s a data breach that becomes public. There’s some manufacturing company that was hit with a ransomware attack and that compromised production and operations for days or weeks. Most of the breaches however never go public. A great number of manufacturing companies became victims of data breach through social engineering, phishing, credential theft that often led to installing ransomware and compromising the entire organization. Such cyber attacks are not only a huge financial cost for the organization but also a damage to the public image of the company.

Manufacturers companies are forced by competition to move with digital transformation and comply with Industry 4.0 standards. The use of automation and robotics in smart factories speeds up the production process but also triggers more cyber risks and uncovers more vulnerabilities and security gaps for potential attack.