Physical security, cybersecurity education, IT/OT separation and outsourcing when necessary are crucial to effective cybersecurity.

A Wall Street Journal article discusses a new set of attacks on electrical distribution providers. These attacks have targeted providers too small to be NERC regulated but may serve a critical infrastructure such as dams or military bases. All but one of the entities that were named in the article says the phishing e-mails were blocked by malicious content filters and were never an issue for them. However, one facility chose not to comment.

In 2018, the global cybersecurity market was already estimated to be worth an impressive £91.21 billion, with projections for the year 2024 pegged at £205.59 billion. The application of the Internet of Things (IoT), bring your own device (BYOD), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in business has brought a whole new level of hyperconnectivity between industries, their employees and customers. This high degree of connectivity, however convenient and useful to both manufacturers and customers, comes at a great cost as it opens up systems to outside tampering. Coupled with increasingly sophisticated cyber threats and attacks, these innovations will continue to fuel the importance of cybersecurity in all business domains, including manufacturing, and this cannot be ignored. 

Although they know about the advantages of self-organizing production, European companies lag behind in comparison with companies internationally. The reason for this in Germany is the tendency to reorganize the complete production right from the start instead of aiming for a goal in small steps and with individual pilot projects. In addition, there is uncertainty about the best software and to which standards the companies should adhere.