Cyber Security in Manufacturing

There is probably little to no thought of internet vulnerability in a CNC manufacturing organization. Unless you are providing components for the military there have most likely been no efforts made to protect data in your operation beyond simple backups and virus protection on your computers. The changes introduced into manufacturing with the steady movement into Industry 4.0 have created a data-driven virtual workplace. The benefit of employees being able to work from home in the recent global pandemic was an unforeseen advantage of these automated systems. Also unforeseen were the threats of cyber security in manufacturing.

A New Target

When we think of cyber-crime we think of retail stores, government, medical, or financial institutions protecting their client information. There is no major private client data held at manufacturing facilities. But increases as much as 300% have been reported in cyber security breaches in manufacturing in 2021 alone. While CNC machine shops don’t hold financial or medical data, they do offer vast amounts of information that hackers can access to extort millions of dollars. This data became even more vulnerable throughout 2020 and 2021 with employees working from personal devices at home with less robust security.

Hackers are a well-seasoned group of computer-savvy criminals who understand cloud computing and data storage as experts, as a CNC machinist understands a tool path. They are poised to find weaknesses as automated systems offer more access points as inter-connectivity grows.

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