How Industry 4.0 influences cybersecurity

The term industry 4.0 refers to the latest technical-economic evolution, which is known as the fourth industrial revolution. The principal element of this transformation is the artificial intelligence, which is linked with other fields that appear with this revolution as for example, autonomous robots, Big Data analysis, IoT, augmented reality or simulation. Apart from these terms that are increasingly heard daily, one of the main pillars of Industry 4.0 is cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity is known as the security we apply to information technology , which contains a large number of techniques and methods whose objective is protecting our system and the rest of the devices present in the network.

We note the great importance that cybersecurity is acquiring in the fact that the new wireless and automated systems that appear to improve processes and communications may be exposed to possible cyber attacks.
In the new era of technologies, nothing is, and will not be the same, so this cause the digital transformation of companies. This is why three main risks appear and the objective of cybersecurity is to protect:

• An unintentional infection of an industrial network, caused by staff when connecting infected removable drives or updating software that turned out to be malware.
• The cyber warfare, that can be defined as targeted actions that are meant to cause harm.
• People with professional experience in industrial systems can use their knowledge to deceive their company.

Smart industries

Along with the noticeable increase in demand for automated and connected facilities, an increasing number of cybersecurity incidents emerge in the Industry 4.0, which informs of the need for specialized personnel in this field. As reported by (ISC) 2 (Center for Cybersecurity and Education) there are not enough technicians to solve all the challenges and threats facing companies in this field.
Previously, companies were concerned about the possible physical damage that workers could suffer during their work shift when operating with machines, but with this revolution there is an additional need to incorporate qualified people in computer security. One of the main tasks of these experts is to ensure the integrity of the communications and confidential data of the company itself.

Cybersecurity challenges in Industry 4.0

One of the most important job of the personnel dedicated to the cybersecurity of the company is to prevent possible attacks against the company, both internal and external. To do this, they are responsible for incorporating functionalities that ensure accessibility and confidentiality, with authentication and encryption methods.
Systems which monitor physical systems (CPS), IoT and IoS, have an immediate effect on cybersecurity, since they are exposed to threats and vulnerabilities that end up creating challenges for this branch of security. These systems integrate new technological devices in the control systems of factories, based on the hyperconnectivity of industrial networks, centralized in servers and new ones that contain large databases. This produces a great attraction for people who are waiting to make attacks on companies.
Therefore, we can conclude that the role played by cybersecurity is crucial to protect the structure of the company or industry at all times, by means of equipment that protects the management networks and the industrial networks themselves. Highly reliable software is used to access the servers and clouds that contain the information, as well as “firewall” intended to cut off the path to unauthorized connections.
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