Fall 2017 issue of Horizons

INDUSTRY UPDATE MANUFACTURING & DISTRIBUTION

Cyber Security Remains a Significant Challenge for Manufacturers & Distributors by Rob Rudloff, CISSP-ISSMP

M odern manufacturing continues to evolve providing incredible enhancements to current processes, in turn exposing the underlying technology and the organization to additional risks. Disruptive improvements in technology, such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), continue to link manufacturing technologies together – not just in a single shop or building, but across geographic areas and organizations. The connectivity between the computers and industrial control systems controlling the manufacturing are sending and collecting data, making modifications based on the

data and feeding the information back into business information systems for analysis. Unfortunately, the networks, computers and control systems were not designed with cyber security in mind – in fact, some of the underlying technology was designed to be isolated from all other computer communications and does not handle “internet” style communications well. Using web-enabled and advanced communications techniques with these systems to link them together directly – virtually and through the cloud – exposes the data, the manufacturing systems and your proprietary information to additional risks.

20 Cyber Security Remains a Significant Challenge for Manufacturers & Distributors