The proliferation of digital technologies in the global manufacturing, industrial and petrochemical complex has created an ever growing boom in the industrial cyber security market.
Whole industries are now readily embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and the industrial internet of things (IIoT) for plant control systems and cloud computing applications that need to be secure. This is driving the market for keeping all things digitally secure to a size few can confidently predict for the fear of grossly underestimating it.
Many experts at the latest round of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit or GMIS 2024, held in Abu Dhabi, UAE on Thursday, projected the figure to be between $50 billion and $100 billion by the turn of the current decade.
Third-party research also puts the figure that bracket. For instance, Precedence Research and Future Market Insights both project a compound annual growth rate of 8% to 9%, from current levels of around $20 billion to just over $50 billion by 2033. Additionally, research by financial consultants Deloitte found that cyber security will become, and in many industries already becoming, integrated with headline operating budgets.
“With cyber security being a key pillar of safeguarding the industrial estate in the digital age, spending on it is growing exponentially because it is now a core corporate objective and deemed mission critical by many industries,” Courtney Gregoire, vice president and chief digital safety officer, Microsoft told GMIS.
Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric, said: “Putting a figure on how big the market will be over the medium-term remains challenging because technological solutions to improve throughput are evolving and so are their intended cyber safeguards. This is creating further demand. It is safe to say that we are in boom market territory already for cyber security solutions.”
Capital Spending For A Pressing 4IR Challenge
That is because it is no exaggeration to describe cyber security as the pressing challenge of the fourth industrial revolution or “4IR” the world is witnessing, said Namir Hourani, managing director of GMIS.
“That challenge is getting bigger in step with evolving complexities as industrial automation is up-scaled. We are at a stage when cyber attacks could lead to a compete hold-up or slowdown of manufacturing processes and entire plant facilities. Hardly any industry leader in the world would view this as a risk worth taking.”
Carlos López-Gómez, head of policy links unit, Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy, said the cyber threat remains multilayered with much of the world’s focus oftentimes limited to the financial or reputational repercussions of cyber attacks.
“Often, we talk about cyber security but perhaps lose sight of cyber safety – how sometimes hackers can attack facilities not just to cause financial and reputational harm but rather cause actual physical harm.
“Furthermore, the regulatory environment in several markets now leans on manufacturing and industrial firms ensuring high levels of cyber security protocols as a pre-requisite for selling the services and products in certain markets. This adds another dimension to the need for robust cyber security solutions.”
In sign of digital times, GMIS 2024 launched a “first-of-its-kind” Manifesto for Global Industrial Safety on Thursday. It is an attempt at a new global benchmark for safety and sustainability in industrial practices that duly flags and offers guidance for the cyber security challenge global industries are encountering.
Developed by the Global Initiative for Industrial Safety (GIFIS) in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Lloyd’s Register Foundation, GMIS itself, and the Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy, the manifesto offers what it describes as a “strategic blueprint” for stakeholders to harness technology and effectively address safety risks for workers around the world.
With the issue becoming ever more prescient, it can be safely said that a multi-billion cyber security business opportunity beckons, and the spending curve will likely nudge upwards.