In the booming age of Industry 4.0 (the fourth and current industrial revolution), manufacturers are replacing legacy shop-floor equipment with “smart” ways and means – enabling safer, more efficient
factories with greater Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE.) Enterprising new Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies like construction robotics and smart assembly lines are at once enabling manufacturers to remain competitive while placing them squarely in the hacker’s crosshairs, with attack vectors just as vulnerable as those seen by popular targets like retail.
The challenge is worldwide – but in the UK nearly half of the manufacturers have experienced a cyber attack.2 In the United States, one widely felt attack occurred when malware hobbled the production platforms for several major newspapers across the country.3 Another incident in Germany found a hacker infiltrating a steel mill by way of phishing email. In this instance, the attacker was able to access the plant’s network, causing multiple components to fail and lose control, ultimately causing permanent
damage to the plant’s smelter.4
