The U.S. Department of Defense is backing a new “Cyber Hub for Manufacturing” in Chicago that aims to keep manufacturing floors safe from hackers.
The DoD has provided Chicago's Digital Manufacturing Design and Innovation Institute (DMDII) with $750,000 in seed funding for the program, which will serve as a testbed for new cybersecurity technologies that keep manufacturing shop floors safe from online hackers.
More than a third of all cyber attacks in the U.S. are aimed at the manufacturing sector, according to a 2017 Verizon data breach investigation report. Furthermore, in 2015, nearly half of all attacked manufacturers in the world were in the U.S.
And as manufacturers increasingly connect more and more equipment to the internet, that threat only increases. The new cyber hub at DMDII will work with manufacturers across the U.S. to implement strategies and develop hands-on cybersecurity training programs to keep manufacturers safe from online criminals.
"We need to think about securing our manufacturing equipment the way we secure our laptops, and the complexity of this issue means our partners will get there much faster by working together," DMDII Executive Director Thomas McDermott said in a statement.
Launched four years ago, the DMDII---part of UI Labs---was founded through a collaboration with the Department of Defense and other organizations to transform American manufacturing.
