October 2019

www.smartmachinesandfactories.com October 2019 | 13 | | FEATURES – GAMBICA three-part digitalisation series | out “you [a hacker] can actually get access to the machine or the factory and make changes” and that there is a tendency to forget that it’s not just laptops connected to a network these days “our controllers are connected and they need protecting”. Leaving you controller with the default password is not enough, Andy tells ups that “Any 15 year old hacker could take down a factory in the UK today, all they need is the manufacturers default code”. Chris Evans concurs, manufacturers can get security in at a product level but it’s the users responsibility to make it difficult [to hack]”. Attacks on company operations still occur less than data breaches, but they are coming more common. And they can cost a company 10’s millions of pounds a time. It’s no surprise that cyber security is cited as a common barrier to adoption of smart technologies. And when, as Paul Streatfied predicts that in the quickly changing world “controlling your machines using as virtual machine doesn’t seem that far away.” New technologies will just throw out another cyber security curve ball. You would think that opting to run much of your operations off cloud based servers would be less secure. You after all do not have control over your information. But Andy Hodgson tells me that although “a lot of companies want a virtual cloud within their “fence” to avoid cyber risks, companies like Siemens use Azure and Amazon WS because how many can you point to someone in the organisation and say cyber security “that’s their job” so why not leave it to an expert?”. Andy Mills agrees “they’ve been designed with that [Cyber security] in mind, whereas the traditional controller that have been connected to the Internet, not so much”. There isn’t the moment a law that requires cyber security in your process, though I get the impression everyone in the group would like to see one. And though all the manufacturers include some higher- level of protection in their products, when you’re working with legacy controllers or haven’t bothered to change the password, you are at a high risk of having your production being stopped. This is clearly a subject of high importance. I ask what is the overarching message the group want to give. Andy Mills put’s it simply “make sure your password is changed. If you don’t your device is complete open”. For our last session, I ask the group what the future holds. While we have a sense of what smart technologies are on the cusp of becoming commercially available, we can’t really see more than the next few years ahead. But this is no reason for the UK to wait and see. The case for adoption can be made now. As the GAMBICA members have shown in this series, so long as you start with what you’re trying to achieve and have everyone on board, then the technology choices should fall into place. But the thing that is important to remember is this, you don’t need to do everything at once, journey’s are a series of steps, and ultimately as Andy Hodgson sums up quite nicely “We are moving from Manufacturing to Smart manufacturing but eventually the end goal is not Smart Manufacturing but a smart business.”