Updated: July 22, 2025
Why Machines Alone Won’t Keep You Safe
Ravi Nair runs IT for a large automotive parts supplier on the outskirts of Pune. The plant hums with precision, from CNC machines to conveyor belts feeding real-time telemetry into a dashboard on his screen. But one Tuesday morning, the screen froze. Minutes later, operators began reporting unresponsive controllers. The culprit: a compromised IoT sensor that had gone unnoticed for months.
The breach wasn’t dramatic, but it was surgical. Downtime cost the company nearly Rs 42 lakh in production delays. It also exposed a hard truth: in plants where machines are smart, the network has to be smarter.
Manufacturing today runs on a hybrid stack of operational technology (OT) and IT systems. But while automation systems evolve fast, security practices often lag. In Indian cities like Pune, Ahmedabad, and Chennai, where industrial growth outpaces digital hygiene, the cracks are beginning to show.
Unlike traditional IT networks, OT environments were never designed to be online. PLCs, SCADA systems, and industrial robots often run proprietary firmware with little to no encryption. Many lack basic authentication. Now imagine hundreds of these endpoints connected to your main network, some via vendor-managed links you barely control.
You may have air-gapped the plant network five years ago, but someone in maintenance plugged in a Wi-Fi bridge last month. The air gap is gone. And the blast radius is now larger than you think.
Mapping Your Hybrid Risk
It starts with visibility. Can you identify every device on your OT network? Do you monitor east-west traffic between IoT segments? Is remote access via OEM support tunnels audited?
A network map is not a spreadsheet. It is a living, real-time visual of your connections, down to port-level context. Most factories don’t have one. That’s why attacks spread before you know they’ve begun.
Segment Like You Mean It
In manufacturing, lateral movement is fatal. A single infected device shouldn’t have access to your MES or ERP systems. This means strict segmentation.
In most Indian factories, production, quality control, and logistics often share the same flat network. That’s a breach waiting to happen. Divide these into separate VLANs with strict access control. Least-privilege enforcement at the switch level must be non-negotiable. And for older OT systems, microsegmentation becomes essential.
The goal is simple. No infected device should move laterally into your MES or ERP stack. If you’re still managing access with static ACLs, move to identity-driven NAC. Your machines already know who they are. Your network should too.
Patch Gaps Are Bigger Than You Think
Patching is messy in manufacturing. Most OT teams fear it because updates often break what they’re meant to secure. Still, leaving an unpatched HMI with default credentials online is a bigger risk.
Start by tracking every device and its firmware version. Test patches in sandbox environments before rolling them out. Automate updates where you can, especially for high-volume IoT endpoints. Security doesn’t have to fight uptime. It should be the reason uptime stays intact.
Don’t Ignore Legacy
That Windows XP machine running a calibration app? It’s still on your network. Most OT environments in India run at least one legacy system that can’t be upgraded without major disruption.
The fix isn’t to rip and replace. It’s to isolate. Put legacy devices in separate VLANs. Use virtual patching through IPS or IDS. Monitor for anomalous behaviour using behavioural analytics.
Encrypt Everything That Moves
You may trust your internal traffic. Hackers don’t. They exploit trust.
Every data packet between machines, controllers, and servers should be encrypted. Use TLS 1.3 or IPSec tunnels wherever possible. This is especially critical in plants transmitting sensitive data to cloud MES platforms.
Build Real-Time Monitoring, Not Just Alerts
Most factories have logs. Few have live telemetry. If a rogue Modbus command is sent to a drive controller, do you know in time to stop it?
You need Network Detection and Response (NDR), OT-aware threat analytics, and flow monitoring dashboards tied to plant uptime SLAs. Security teams must see what operators see, ideally before they do.
Culture Is the Real Perimeter
A security policy is just paper until it becomes habit. The technician won’t read your policy document, but they’ll notice if their access card stops working.
Enforce good behaviour through regular drills and tabletop exercises. Run phishing simulations. Conduct role-based access reviews every quarter. When operators become the first alert system, your culture is working.
India Needs to Rethink Plant Security
By 2027, India’s manufacturing sector is projected to reach $1 trillion in value. The government is aggressively pushing digital factories across sectors. But with digitization comes exposure. Whether it’s a pharma unit in Baddi or a hosiery exporter in Tiruppur, network security has to be treated as infrastructure, not a compliance checkbox.
Work With Proactive
Proactive helps factories secure their production networks, from PLC to cloud. We design segmentation, deploy identity-driven NAC, and monitor your network like it matters. As a Cisco Gold Partner, we bring deep domain knowledge and proven expertise to every engagement. Write to [email protected] to start today.
