It’s a scene straight out of techno-thriller boilerplate: A black-clad hacker, hunched over a keyboard, worms into a computer system in a factory. Once inside, the hacker deploys malicious code that cripples operations, causing the assembly line to grind to a halt. Then the hacker demands millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to remove the code and free the factory.
Clichéd as it might sound, that vignette is true to life. So much so that a constellation of technologies — firewalls, two-factor authentication, virus-scanning software — have evolved to protect personal computers and business networks from cybercrime. What’s often overlooked, however, are all the other tools hooked up to digital networks, including the increasingly intelligent machinery in a manufacturing plant, that are also vulnerable to hacks.
To counter this threat, Joe Clark, a…
