The new warehouse is no longer the dusty destination for long-term storage. It's now a symphony of activity where robots and humans work together in a rapid and complex dance.
In the new warehouse, safety systems are key, controlling issues such as how fast robots move materials along floor routes and how they behave when approaching human space.
Imagine what would happen if someone with bad intent hacked into those safety systems. As you might expect, someone has.
In January 2018, the first malware attack hit an energy plant in the Middle East, deploying highly sophisticated malware to halt operations at an energy plant, according to cyberscoop.com.
The attack specifically targeted safety systems designed to regulate the speed at which machinery moves and to assume privileges to shut down operations.
This attack created a new safety and security reality throughout global industry.
In robotic industrial settings, computer safety controllers can detect if something is wrong in a plant and sound an alarm, according to ArcherSecurityGroup.com. The controllers can order remedies to avoid catastrophe, such as releasing pressure if an explosion is imminent, or simply beginning a safe shut down of the plant. Evil software could fake a safety problem, causing a plant shutdown, or even create a hazardous situation.
But no need to panic. At the moment, no piece of malware can cause explosions, for example, by breaking into a safety system, according to Archer.
More worrisome is the link between smartphone apps and machine monitoring and management.
In many situations, engineers monitor and manage machines through smartphone apps. But the apps can and do have security holes. According to technologyreview.com, researchers found 147 security holes in 32 apps used by major companies. Just two apps got a clean security report.
These security holes could allow hackers to mislead engineers into thinking a machine is running safely when it is not. Or, hackers could exploit app flaws by inserting malicious code to servers controlling machines.
The new reality for cyber security and safety is expected to affect industrial operations of machines and humans worldwide.
