Cyber Risk In Electronics Manufacturing – How To Combat It - Miracle Electronics

Technology is always evolving; and with the rising technologies comes a risk of cyber security. For example, digital connectivity, sensor technologies, and iCloud infrastructure bring a lot many advantages like higher product quality, reduced downtime, better production, improved maintenance, and much more.

But, at the same time, these advancements bring an increased risk of cyber attacks, especially for the electronics manufacturing industry, which has been one of the top eight industries to report data breaches the most. Hence, it is very crucial to stringently control such cyber security to ward off any potential risks that may arise because of it. Below mentioned, in this blog, are some of the important steps that electronic manufacturing services providers, like Miracle Electronics, should be taking to protect their productivity and processes.

The current scenario

Before diving into the ways of combating cyber threats in the electronics manufacturing industry, let us first understand the current scenario of the trade.

• As a result of the rapid advancement of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there is increasing cyber threat that manufacturers are experiencing. This makes cyber security a critical pillar of Industry 4.0.
• 85% of electronics manufacturers in India claim that cyber security is a key element of their digital transformation blueprint. And, 82% of them have a clearly defined cyber security strategy.
• Coming to maintaining a consistent level of cyber security across the breadth of their information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) environments, 71% of electronics manufacturers in India are bringing together IT and OT to digitize their business.
• Majority of manufacturers express confidence in their own cyber security defences, but they are always less certain for the same about their supply chain partners. Only 11% of manufacturers today claim that they insist on their suppliers to provide evidence of their cyber security defences.

Strategies to combat cyber threats

As part of the digital transformation processes that electronics manufacturers adopt in their industries, there are five very important strategies that they should be putting in place.

1. First and foremost, every electronics manufacturing company should ensure that their information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) environments are unified. Then, there must also be a company-wide commitment to shared responsibility in protecting against cyber threats.
2. There must be vigilance in protecting intellectual property and valuable intellectual intelligence.
3. Business continuity and the availability of manufacturing operations should be maintained.
4. The integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the entire supply chain must be thoroughly verified, insisting that the suppliers provide evidence of their robust cyber security defences.
5. The best possible practices must be followed in order to secure new routes to market and increase customer engagement.

In short, there must be cohesiveness maintained across the entire IT landscape, right from the programmable logic controllers used on the factory floor to the integration of cloud-based machine learning. With these five stringent policies, every electronic manufacturing services provider can lead the industry; and following such critical measures can have the electronic manufacturing industry be completely free of any potential cyber threats.