Securing the connected factory of tomorrow

Securing the connected factory of tomorrow

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 can accelerate and improve business outcomes, bringing immense value to organizations. In industries such as manufacturing, new service offerings can be developed and increased productivity can be achieved. However, as with anything connected to the internet, IIoT devices are subject to cyber threats, including interruption or spoofing of traffic and hijacking of devices. These new IIoT opportunities need reliable connectivity and the ability to trust the data that is transmitted – for example, firmware updates and analytical data. In the end, secure communication and trusted device identities are fundamental for IIoT solutions.

In this guide, you will learn how to enable new digital business models with secure communication in the connected factory. 

When machines communicate, Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) is increasingly used as a protocol. The good performance, the low overhead, and the recommendation of the protocol by various industry specifications make it a de facto standard. For secure and trusted communication, both sender and receiver must authenticate themselves to prove their respective authorization. OPC UA offers a security framework, and for full security it is recommended to implement a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

To provide more information about how PrimeKey’s PKI and digital signature solutions can help, we worked in a joint project with companies J. Schmalz GmbH, PrimeKey Aachen Labs GmbH, GPS Stuttgart GmbH and Campus Schwarzwald gGmbH to demonstrate the implementation of a secure industrial eco¬system.

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