Navigating Cybersecurity Risks in Industry 4.0: Challenges, Threats, and Defense Strategies

Abstract

The rise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also known as Industry 4.0, has brought high-end technologies in industrial deployments like computer vision, big data analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). These advancements push the envelope for computing, but they come with security consequences that can shape an entirely new set of attack surfaces. This study addresses and investigates existing research and reports on the cybersecurity domain in Industry 4.0. We presented a systematic review of the academic literature, conference proceedings, and related observation studies characterizing cybersecurity risks and defenses. The study highlights the major cybersecurity threats in Industry 4.0, such as data security and privacy, as well as the overall security of the network and system reliability. The paper also outlines different approaches that can be undertaken to reduce these threats, including encryption, control access mechanisms, and network segmentation. The analysis part interprets the results, translates them to get some significant conclusions, and provides practical recommendations in terms of future research and implementation.