IT Security A Major Stumbling Block To Smart Manufacturing

A VDE survey of 1,300 German manufacturers and academics finds adoption of smart manufacturing (Industry 4.0) is likely delayed, with 66% citing IT security concerns as a principal obstacle; respondents also pointed to a lack of cross-industry standards and workforce retraining challenges. The article highlights that connecting management systems, plants, supply networks, and business IT will introduce new risks, cites commentary from SAP and ABI Research, and gives an example of IoT sensor use by Crown Equipment, but contains no technical incident details or indicators.