VDMA security expert Steffen Zimmermann sees the Industry 4.0 Theme Park at the METAV 2018 as a good source of information on all topics relating to cybersecurity. "Cybersecurity plays an important role for suppliers, because it enables new, innovative business models," explains Zimmermann. Anyone offering condition monitoring or predictive maintenance, for example, must not only think about the technical implementation in the long term, but also about the secure design of data traffic. His recommendation for companies: "Ask the providers in Düsseldorf specifically whether and how they take cybersecurity into account in their solutions. First and foremost, it's about risk assessment. Has the protection of confidential data been considered? Who has access to this data? How does data retrieval from abroad - from China, for example - work?

Risk awareness in terms of cybersecurity has increased significantly in companies. "Human threats such as misconduct and sabotage, the infiltration of malware as well as social engineering and phishing are still at the top of the list," says Zimmermann. "However, easy-to-implement technical protective measures are still not taken seriously." He describes control components connected to the internet as a current hot topic, which can be easily protected against hackers using simple technical means.

Use of a secure communication computer

Bernd Zapf, Head of Development New Business & Technology at Gebr. Heller Maschinenfabrik GmbH in Nürtingen, Germany, explains how the machine tool industry is tackling the issue.

Heller Maschinenfabrik from Nürtingen shows how it works: "Over the past two years, Heller has been working with Siemens on this issue in particular to provide a secure solution for connecting machine tools to the Internet," explains Zapf. "To this end, we will connect our machines to the Internet exclusively via a secure communication computer, i.e. the Sinumerik Edge industrial PC from Siemens will be connected between the machine controller and the customer network for connections to the Internet."

Sinumerik Edge reads data from the machine control system and stores it temporarily in a ring buffer. The data is either processed further or prepared directly for forwarding to the Internet. This ensures that no direct connection from the Internet to the machine is possible and that the data is encrypted with the highest security certificates. This communication path fulfills the legal requirements for cloud-based data traffic in accordance with the international series of standards "Industrial communication networks - IT security for networks and systems" (IEC 62443) and complies with the security certificates specified by Siemens. At Metav 2018, the Nürtingen-based company will be demonstrating various Industry 4.0 technologies on the Profitrainer training machine with Heller4Industry, for example in data traffic with MindSphere: This open Internet-of-Things system from Siemens helps to process data. It is a cloud technology that works with various cloud infrastructures (AtoS or Microsoft Azure).

Secure digital identities: Basis for data exchange

"Cybersecurity plays an important role for providers because it enables new, innovative business models," explains VDMA security expert Steffen Zimmermann.

The VDMA advocates "secure digital identity (SDI)" as the basis for automated and autonomous data exchange. Zimmermann: "The user should be able to clearly understand and assign the decisions of the systems involved using secure digital identities." The requirements for these identities are high. They must be very difficult to copy, must be forgery-proof and must also be able to be revoked or passed on. Machine manufacturers should therefore start thinking now about how they can put SDI into practice.

Heller is one of the pioneers in this field. Zapf: "Since EMO Hannover 2017, we have been offering an operator model with a pay-per-use payment method for the usage time of the machines under the term Heller4Industry for the use of certain Heller machining centers. We call this digital business model Heller4Use. Digital payment is made by SEPA direct debit." Usage time is recorded securely inside the machine controller and then transmitted via Sinumerik Edge to MindSphere, where the usage time is evaluated and billed internally by Heller via SAP. Nikolaus Fecht/cs