CYBERSECURITY
Expert Insights from Market Leaders
Protecting Industry 4.0 The whole concept of Industry 4.0 is one of “super-connected plants” with product and service on demand and instant access to real time data. The principle it embodies includes the creation of interoperable manufacturing environments, integrated sales and delivery data sets, real time plant management data and remote and autonomous service and maintenance management. It is the embodiment of the future that was imagined in the science fiction of the seventies and eighties. However with this all connected, autonomous and self-managed industry environment comes a set of risks and threats and the potential for system breakdown that the same science fictional world relied on for its story lines.
Insecurely Driving Industry Forward
Andrew Cooke, Head of Consulting, Airbus CyberSecurity
Coming back to reality for a moment the drive for efficiency and our ‘on demand’ society has placed an expectation on industry that a consumer’s order today will be delivered tomorrow. This result is a real need for super connectivity to translate demand into service delivery instantly.
Coming back to reality for a moment the drive for efficiency and our ‘on demand’ society has placed an expectation on industry that a consumer’s order today will be delivered tomorrow. This result is a real need for super connectivity to translate demand into service delivery instantly. From that societal requirement consequently comes a need for high availability of plant, the requirement for an ability to make instant configuration change and to maintain plant and equipment remotely to maximise up time and minimise delays from travel and repair time. In order to deliver product and service to the customers expectations supply chains have to be more integrated, services and processes need to be capable of evolving to meet changing need and data needs to be made available instantly to the supplier and the customer to manage the delivery programme. This connected world clearly presents us with a whole set of different cyber challenges. If the supplier has remote access to your systems to manage inventory, upgrade firmware or maintain control systems then you can bet someone who wants to steal goods or intellectual property can get the same access. If power demand and transmission needs to be balanced across a network from a remote control centre then it can equally be interfered with and potentially control taken by a malevolent actor as well. Interoperability and openness of systems is a huge advantage in management and control of process but also allows malevolent code, malware and viruses to spread rapidly around a system as well.
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