Let me tell you a quick story.
A manufacturer we know had a barcode scanner that was Wi-Fi connected. Innocent enough, right? It ran on a little Linux-based OS and talked directly to their ERP. One day, that scanner started talking to China.
Turns out it had been hijacked by a botnet. The scanner kept working—but it was siphoning data. Nobody knew… until their entire ERP got blackholed in a denial-of-service attack. Four days of downtime. Missed deliveries. Pissed off clients.
All because nothing was segmented.
What Is Network Segmentation (and Why You Should Care)?
Think of your shop floor like a factory with rooms. If you don’t have walls (network segments), then one fire (cyber event) spreads everywhere.
Without segmentation:
- That HVAC sensor can talk to your CNC machine
- Your engineer’s email can access your OT controllers
- Malware that hits one device can take down the whole line
With Segmentation:
- You put IoT devices in their own “room” (VLAN)
- You control what talks to what
- You limit the blast radius when something goes sideways
The Good News?
You don’t have to rip everything out. We can retrofit segmentation into your existing environment without unplugging production.
Most SMB manufacturers haven’t segmented their networks. They just hope nothing bad happens. Hope’s not a strategy.
Let’s review your network design and see if your IoT is playing by the rules—or rolling the dice with your uptime. Setup a time with us here.
Hank “Hammer” Dalton
Manufacturing Storyteller | IT Translator | Defender of the Duct Tape Tired