Questions with Mazak's Tyler Massey

Q: Why are some industries, such as aerospace and defense, more prone to cyberattacks than others?

A: Those industry sectors that often involve numerous suppliers and contractors, each of which poses potential security risks, are the most prone to cyberattacks. Additionally, manufacturing environments, such as aerospace and defense, are much more regulated and sensitive in terms of protecting intellectual property (IP), which heightens their potential for cyberattacks. The incorporation of new technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) can introduce new additional vulnerabilities.

Q: What does a cybersecurity plan do?

An effective cybersecurity strategy prevents machines from being infected by viruses that can spread to a facility’s network and paralyze operations. Further, a secure data system stops malware from stealing information from machines, including proprietary designs and confidential part programs. Effective cybersecurity also prevents rogue (outside) access to a machine where damage could be done by malware designed to deliberately stop the machine, crash the machine, or introduce offsets with the deliberate purpose of making a critical feature on a workpiece out of tolerance, rendering the entire part as scrap.

Q: What’s the layered approach to implementing secure methods for data sharing and collection?

A: In a manufacturing environment, networks are often housed inside networks which are in turn housed in other networks, and typically data does not flow between those layers. A layered approach to cybersecurity is to stop intruders in one layer and prevent them from moving to the next.

Q: Is incorporation of cybersecurity a do-it-yourself project?

A: It can be if manufacturers have IT professionals on staff who specialize in cybersecurity. Another option, if they lack the staff or are uncomfortable doing it in-house, is to partner with a vendor who can provide an IT system to protect IP. Such systems typically provide an independent network that pushes data out, so the system isn’t connected directly to factory floor machines.

Q: How are factory floor machines connected to a network kept safe?

A: To secure machines from networks and networks from machines, machine tool OEMs and others offer advanced digital integration devices that provide connectivity of machines and devices for enhanced monitoring and analytical capabilities along with cybersecurity. These devices also offer network isolation, which prevents unauthorized access from both directions – to and from the machines and equipment on a network. Plus, such devices satisfy the critical security concerns of a manufacturer’s IT department when connecting legacy equipment to the facility’s main network.

Q: How do digital integration devices work?

A: Digital integration devices are at the heart of IIoT. They allow the connectivity of individual assets to create an Intranet or a private network within a facility. These devices can take many forms, but when considering cybersecurity, they’ll generally include a fully managed network switch or lean managed switch accompanied with a way to segregate or mask a facility’s assets from its main network. Often, this segregation is set up through an edge computing device that creates subnetworks, limiting the access between layers and helping to keep a facility’s assets protected from its network and vice-versa, securing the network from the assets in the event of a local attack.

Q: Do smaller job shops need cybersecurity?

A: Because of their smaller size, job shops often don’t consider themselves targets for cyberattacks. However, those shops most certainly are targets and more so if they supply industries at high risk for cyberattacks. Plus, these high-risk manufacturers now require their supplaiers to also provide some form of cybersecurity, so it’s even more critical that smaller supplier job shops prevent their machines from being infected by viruses and malware.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Mazak Corp.
https://www.mazakusa.com