Rising competition, sky-high inflation, and greater prioritization of sustainability are among many factors fueling digital transformation in food & beverage. From new innovations that optimize feeding and irrigation, to cloud connectivity that integrates ERP and MES data across enterprise and plant networks for production and cost efficiencies, to robotic controllers that boost throughput — the benefits of automation, IT/OT connectivity, and CPS are why their manual, analog counterparts are now relics of the past.

But for many food & beverage companies, these benefits are outpaced by industrial cybersecurity risks. This harsh reality has repeatedly manifested as ransomware and other attacks that exploit security weaknesses in the CPS on which production availability, integrity, and safety rely. Mitigating these risks and, ultimately, gaining cyber and operational resilience requires a new approach that extends beyond traditional, IT-oriented security solutions.