Researchers: Cybernization of American manufacturing is the path forward for global leadership

By investing in digital and smart manufacturing, the U.S. can lead the world in manufacturing productivity, energy efficiency and innovation. But we must do so in a cyber secure manner. The challenge is enormous and the complexity of cybersecurity grows bigger every day with the explosion of digital linkages between manufacturers, suppliers, customers and employees along with the digitization of products and services. Digitization directly leads to increased energy efficiency, productivity, overall equipment efficiency and cost savings throughout the supply chain. Digital communication is critical for this smart manufacturing ecosystem, but our current legacy internet infrastructure – ARPANET, the precursor to the internet is 50 years old this year – was never designed with security in mind. Consequently, digitization of automation and manufacturing supply chains expands existing cyber-attack surfaces and creates new ones every minute of every day. We need to rethink the economics of cybersecurity and how we build cyber systems for the future of manufacturing.

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