Cybersecurity Challenges for Manufacturing Systems 4.0: Assessment of the Business Impact Level

An ever-growing number of companies are moving toward the Industry 4.0 paradigm, adopting a range of advanced technologies (e.g., smart sensors, big data analytics, and cloud computing) and networking their manufacturing systems. This improves the efficiency and effectiveness of operations but also introduces new cybersecurity challenges. In this article, the
impact assessment methodology
is applied in the context of manufacturing systems 4.0 (also known as smart manufacturing systems, cyber manufacturing systems, or digital manufacturing systems), thus identifying the critical assets to be protected against cyber-attacks and assessing the business impacts in the case of subtractive and additive technologies. The research design of the single case study with multiple units of analysis is applied. In particular, a large company, a leader in the manufacturing of aeronautical components, is considered a representative case study, and its two main types of manufacturing cells that is, those based on networked computer numerical control machines and 3-D printers, are taken as applicative cases for the methodology. The application of the impact assessment methodology in the manufacturing context 4.0 of aeronautical components represents a useful guide for researchers in the field of cybersecurity and for companies intending to implement it in their smart manufacturing environments. In particular, based on this study, companies can define the critical manufacturing data to protect against cyber-attacks, isolate the business impacts in case of cybersecurity breaches, correlate the identified business impacts with the specific data category, and assess the level of business impacts.