Change is happening right across the manufacturing industry. The need for increased agility and flexibility has created Industry 4.0, or the Industrial Internet, where everything, from assembly line machine to delivery truck, is being connected with everything else, via the Internet. In this fourth industrial revolution, the fusion of physical and virtual worlds into global networks of cyber-physical systems is radically changing production control.

While this brings benefits in lower costs and higher efficiency it also increases the risks. The complexity of managing production and supplier networks across the value chain grows enormously. It’s a challenge that cyber criminals are exploiting.

Manufacturing is a highly lucrative target for their activities, ranging from cyber espionage, such as theft of intellectual property, to sabotage with worms grabbing control of industrial plants.

However, manufacturers need not despair. Securing IT systems and processes, smart technologies and interconnected supply chains against even the most sophisticated attackers is possible. Achieving cyber resilience involves diligence, good practice and risk management that’s supported by the right security strategy and technologies. With these strategies in place, manufacturers can increase their success and competitiveness by taking advantage of all that Industry 4.0 offers, while controlling the risks.

The manufacturing industry is going through great changes. The fourth revolution, driven by the Internet of Things, is happening. It is creating intelligent networks connecting machines, work and systems that can autonomously exchange information, trigger actions and control each other independently.

In fact, it’s estimated that 85% of companies have implemented Industry 4.0 solutions in all important business divisions in five years time. By 2020 represent €140 billion spent annually in Europe1.

In manufacturing, these cyber-physical systems cover smart machines, storage systems and production facilities not just in one factory but across many.

Smart factories take a completely new approach to production products can be identified, located and moved by alternative routes as needed. Manufacturing systems are connected with business processes as well as external networks, across the value chain, and managed in real-time.

These changes will impact the whole supply chain from design, prototyping, ordering, industrial processing and sales, up to maintenance and service with your business partners becoming more closely intertwined with your business.

It involves the integration of business systems that were once separate. Operational technology (OT) that once drove production processes is now merging with general Office IT. It also means that you are likely to have more suppliers to coordinate often globally, with longer transport times and more manufacturing steps.

Flexible, lean manufacturing delivered by the industrial Internet is predicted to increase productivity and resource efficiency by 18% in the next five years and reduce inventories and costs by some 2.6% annually.

While the integration of systems that were once separate benefits manufacturers, it also carries risks- in particular to security. Processes that were once isolated are now vulnerable to cyber attack, both directly and indirectly.