Enabling Cybersecurity for the Digital Manufacturing Supply Chain

Many manufacturers in the nation’s supply chain, especially small and medium-size manufacturers, lack the tools and expertise needed to identify and mitigate cyberattacks. Traditionally, assessment tools have aided the discovery, validation, and testing of vulnerabilities in information technology (IT) systems. But IT security primarily covers office environments. Manufacturers also need tools to assess cybersecurity vulnerabilities in their operations technology. OT cyberattacks can target machines on a factory floor, potentially shutting down operations completely. These tools therefore must have capabilities that test both OT and IT.

This team will develop and identify a cybersecurity profile for manufacturers, and help them understand their current readiness and their unique needs for cybersecurity tools. The team also will define and document criteria for benchmarking existing cybersecurity solutions. Then the team will conduct a pilot implementation and test of the top cybersecurity tools from the benchmark assessment. These cybersecurity tests will be performed at five SMMs.

This evaluation and benchmarking of existing cybersecurity tools will benefit all of manufacturing, especially the SMMs that need it most. The pilots’ results will validate the effectiveness of the benchmarking, identify further gaps and provide guidance for American manufacturers seeking to secure their operations and maximize their ROI.

The final outcomes are reports, presentations, and guidelines along with a cloud-based tool called SiESTA (Siemens Extensible Security Testing Appliance).