Security News > 2020 > June > Cybersecurity risks in a possible US manufacturing resurgence
TechRepublic spoke to executives and experts to see if the US could avoid such supply chain issues by ramping up manufacturing to return to "Made in America" glory.
"The US has been the richest target of cyberattacks from abroad aimed at capturing that knowledge to accelerate development of goods-both tangible and intangible-without having to pay the rents that have funded the US economy for decades of dwindling manufacturing," Ray of SecureAge said.
"Even if the US somehow found a domestic market devout and large enough to finance a return of manufacturing of US-designed goods, those foreign actors will not only still target American IP to reduce their development costs, but will now also have a larger attack surface: the manufacturing equipment, materials, and logistics reliant on robots, AI, and data," he said.
There are actually a few reasons drug companies might consider making a dramatic change and bringing the manufacturing of medical drugs back to the US. Aside from the obvious health and lifestyle needs, tensions have risen between the US and China, and range from high tariffs to implications, by even the US president, of China being the starting point/cause of the COVID-19 crisis.
"As the industry adopts more and more IoT, cloud computation and automation, there are increased opportunities for a data breach with unsecured wireless networks, servers with weak passwords, and malware infections." Sturdevant added: "Manufacturing is largely about how quickly you can turn out widgets. While most US manufacturers have excellent IP to manufacture products, very few companies have sufficient security measures and programs in place to protect their most valuable assets against threats and vulnerabilities." "Manufacturing will have to up their game considerably in terms of protection from DDOS, ransomware, ICS, IoT, and IIoT attacks," Howlett said.