Industrial manufacturers ranked network security as their top cybersecurity investment to guard against adverse cyber events, according to a recent State of Technology in Manufacturing survey by global technology intelligence firm ABI Research. With increasingly connected and digitized industrial assets providing ever more information about processes and workforce, manufacturers are focusing their security on network security technologies such as authentication and access control.
Coupled with a growing body of industrial-focused security regulation and an expanding cybercrime element (for whom data in discrete manufacturing processes are extremely high value), this puts pressure on manufacturers to safeguard their operations better. Network breaches can have significant repercussions on industrial manufacturers.
Unplanned downtime impacts production, which could lead to revenue loss or potential regulatory liability for data breaches. In Europe alone, three regulatory instruments impose financial penalties for non-compliance: the General Data Protection Regulations, the NIS2 Directive, and the Cyber Resilience Act.
“Industrial manufacturers are one of…
