Adopt Standards for Supply Chain Security in Manufacturing
Former Vice Chancellor of Germany Philipp Rösler Urges Breach Reporting Standards
The German Federal Agency for IT Security and other industry associations in the EU announced Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, in 2013. Since then, we saw the emergence of smart factories as manufacturers integrated technologies such as IoT into their production facilities. But IoT devices are notoriously weak on security as many manufacturers do not provide firmware updates. This poses a threat to the entire supply chain and can disrupt manufacturing.
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The last few years saw increased digitalization in the manufacturing supply chain, and this presented more risks.
"If you digitalize everything, there will certainly be more digital risks. Every single step in the supply chain is vulnerable to cyberattacks. So you have to protect the entire supply chain and the value chain," said Philipp Rösler, former vice chancellor of Germany, and Acronis board member. "It's not enough to have the final product management and protection of the product plant. You have to always consider cyber risk in the entire production line."
Rösler, who is also on the Acronis Board of Directors, said the diversity of tools is a challenge that everyone is grappling with. Acronis takes an "integrated approach" to cyber protection with a holistic view on the production processes, he said.
In this video interview with ISMG, Rösler also discussed:
- How industry 4.0 technologies are transforming manufacturing;
- Cyberthreats to IoT and the supply chain;
- What policy makers and industry must do to enhance security.
Rösler has extensive experience in politics, technology and economics. He also served as the federal minister of health from 2009 to 2011 and as federal minister of economics and technology from 2011 to 2013. Additionally, Rösler was the chairman of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) from 2011 to 2013. In January 2014, he became a member of the managing board and head of the Centre for Regional Strategies of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland.
