As one of the leading industries facing an onslaught of cyberthreats, manufacturers find themselves searching for solutions that can alleviate factory floor challenges and optimize production. While manufacturers research and compare solutions, pressure continues to mount, ranging from ransomware and phishing attacks to regulatory pressures and supply chain risks.
In a 2024 survey, it was revealed that 80 percent of manufacturing companies experienced a significant increase in security incidents within the last year, 31 percent of which resulted in financial losses or operational downtime.
Continuing to increase rapidly, security threats facing IT and OT networks can no longer be ignored. While profitability is a driving factor to quickly improve security measures across facilities, there are more reasons why leaders must tackle the cybersecurity gaps in their ecosystem.
Overcoming Security Challenges on the Factory Floor
When it comes to modern security practices, it’s clear that manufacturing facilities are often lacking in robust protocols. Manual oversight and logs are still heavily prevalent in facilities, which means human errors are bound to happen. Whether it’s operator identification, workstation login, quality assurance, heavy machinery access, mustering, time and attendance, or some other facility end point, identities must be verified securely.
If endpoints are not secure in these facilities, there is no accountability or quality assurance. When a paint manufacturer found they were incurring an average of 12 bad batches a week, they traced it back to unauthorized employee use that cost the company nearly $2.5 million annually. By integrating OEM readers into their PLCs and workstations, along with implementing SSO privileged access, this manufacturer eliminated paint batch errors moving forward.
Stories like the paint manufacturers’ are all too common and consistently remind us that passwords and unsecure access control systems cost manufacturers more than just compromised credentials. On average, companies with 10,000 employees lose $4.8M worth of productivity annually due to the time spent on password issues. Authentication plays a huge role in compliance and as OSHA, GDPR, MFA and the Executive Order on Cybersecurity requirements continue to change, plants are left struggling to ensure accountability across their entire workforce.
To prevent unauthorized access and unlock many more benefits, manufacturers have to start evaluating their credentials and, if necessary, deploying more secure ones that future-proof their access control systems.
Passwords do not offer effective security, yet they are still widely used as the primary authentication method by 88 percent of organizations. By eliminating the need for passwords and adopting password-less authentication, organizations can reduce the risk of credential-based attacks and enhance overall security.
Password-less authentication can be deployed via biometric authentication (fingerprints or facial/voice recognition), smart cards, passkeys or digital wallets, which offer next-level security due to the short range of NFC technology. Choosing the right authentication type depends on the facility as well as existing IT systems and applications. Reducing friction or change management can often mean supporting multiple credentials, with the goal of fully transitioning to the most secure option like smart cards, mobile credentials or biometrics.
The impact that adopting secure credentials and authentication can have on manufacturers is significant. Not only will unauthorized access be prevented, allowing sensitive information and assets to be protected, but the employee experience will improve. Simplifying login processes across multiple facility endpoints reduces IT and administrative workloads. Plus, the activity data collected from these endpoints can produce behavior analytics and production trends, allowing manufacturers to make informed business decisions and drive growth.
Given the complex cybersecurity threat landscape in manufacturing, relying on outdated technology or manual procedures should not be a risk manufacturers are willing to take. By embracing modern secure credentials and password-less authentication methods, manufacturers can not only prevent unauthorized access but also enhance overall operational efficiency.
As the industry continues to evolve, adopting these advanced security measures will be crucial for maintaining a resilient and future-proof supply chain.