Cybersecurity is a growing concern in Manufacturing as operational technologies are increasingly connected to the cloud. How can manufacturers reap the benefits of data while staying safe?
Digital transformation initiatives in Manufacturing have increasingly seen previously-standalone products being equipped with sensors and connected to the cloud. The resulting data flows can be invaluable for the business, enabling predictive maintenance and opening up new revenue streams.
But that connectivity comes with a risk: an IBM threat intelligence report found that manufacturing is now the most-attacked sector by cybercriminals, having overtaken financial services in 2021. It’s a risk that must be addressed, and the way to do that is by adopting a new approach to cybersecurity.
“In the old days, we would ring-fence the entire data centre and have firewalls to get in and out. Now there is a zero trust mentality, so everything needs to be validated.” – Andrew Rawling, Chief Technology Officer, Manufacturing, Logistics, Energy and Utilities, Cognizant UKI
Read the interview: Mastering Cybersecurity in an Industry 4.0 world
The days of ringfencing data centres behind perimeter firewalls have gone, and security now has to be much more layered. The key is knowing where and how to set the guardrails so that data can flow where it needs to go, and any threats are detected, isolated and eliminated as they arise.
In a recent interview with The Manufacturer, Cognizant’s Niraj Seth and Andrew Rawling discuss the new cybersecurity imperative in manufacturing and set out how manufacturers can transition to an Industry 4.0 model without creating new cyber-risks. Read the interview here.
This article is the final instalment in our four-part series “Making data work in Manufacturing”, read the rest of the series here.
