DailyPost 2570
CYBER SECURITY FOR INDUSTRY 4.0
When hacking is the new normal, how can Industry 4.0 escape from it. If you think the other way round, given progression of cyber attack and the threat actors involved, Industry 4.0 seems like a natural target. Strictly from a motive point of view, which is causal imperative for any crime, hacking after passing through stages of curiosity, revenge and monetary gain and reached the stages of espionage, political activism and moving a stage further they have started striking national security mostly at the *behest of nation states. If monetary gain is involved, is for a huge price and has one or two other motives as well.
Industry 4.0 takes the industrial revolution to a different level, moving from mechanical, electrical, internet to the next stage of cyber-physical level. The integration of the two is the marvel it launches and will change the world for all time to come. We are already experiencing it, all over. This would have an impact which would be 10x of the Internet Revolution, blurring once and for all; the physical and cyber digital divide. It would not be impacting only the industry in the strict sense of the term, but would have huge socio-economic ramifications and impact governments and individuals as well.
Operations and information technology (OT/IT) were two different areas of engineering functioning which are getting married in Industry. From simple to SCADA to seamless integration of IT in all its dimensions is the challenge and opportunity. IoT, data analytics, additive manufacturing, robotics, high performance computing, artificial intelligence, cognitive technologies, advanced materials, augmented reality are all coming together to complete that cycle and digitize business operations. These are called the Industry 4.0 technologies, leading to the integration of digital information from different sources and locations to drive the physical act of manufacturing and distribution.
This entails a digital supply network (DSN) which is changing the supply chain and is evolving cyber risks. DSN’s increasing interconnectedness brings with it cyber weakness. The factory, now a Smart Factory faces new cyber risks in the age of smart production. Smart factory has system complexity and consumer involvement of the highest level. Then we have the connected objects and finally the Industrial Control Systems, ICS, threat landscape. Suffice to say, that the threat surface has increased considerably, and being nascent, systems are certainly not robust and then the whole world of human failings. The threat has to kept less and manageable through a variety of measures. Readiness, response and recovery (resilience) in entirety is the road ahead.
INDUSTRY 4.0 WITHOUT CUTTING EDGE CYBER SECURITY WILL KEEP ON BACKFIRING.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.