Page 30 - Cyber Defense eMagazine January 2024

Addressing the Particular Cybersecurity

Challenge of Discrete Manufacturing

By Dave Purdy, Regional Vice President of Sales, North America, TXOne Networks

Though it’s often treated as a borrowed approach from the information technology (IT) world,
cybersecurity for operational technology (OT) is best tackled as its own unique challenge. The pain points,
protocols and tradeoffs to be balanced are fundamentally different in OT than in IT.

Perhaps in no industrial environment is this distinction more clear than in discrete manufacturing, where
the pressure is most extreme to maintain unit volumes while, at the same time, protecting the safety of
machines and the lives of the people who work with and near those machines. Discrete manufacturing
offers an unusually delicate balance of factors and forces that OT managers must constantly maintain in
cybersecurity.

What are the particular requirements and characteristics of OT cybersecurity in discrete manufacturing,
and how do these weigh into decisions around implementing effective solutions for this environment?

Cyber Defense eMagazine – January 2024 Edition 30
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