Protecting manufacturing with highest-assurance security

Secure Your IT and OT Environments Against Evolving AI Threats

For five consecutive years, manufacturing has remained the world’s most targeted industry, representing 27.7% of all global cyber incidents. As information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) continue to converge, once-isolated systems are being integrated with the internet. In fact, over 180,000 industrial control systems (ICS) and OT environments are exposed to the web monthly.

With unplanned downtime costing the industry an estimated $50 billion annually , a secure-by-design approach is paramount. Traditional legacy authentication solutions—such as usernames, passwords, and mobile-based authenticators—are no longer effective against cyber attacks including those supercharged by AI. Real-world hijacking research shows that SMS-based one-time passwords (OTP) block only 76% of targeted attacks, leaving organizations highly vulnerable.

Manufacturing organizations recognize the urgent need to modernize authentication and security across converged IT and OT environments. This evolution is essential not only to ensure seamless access to critical data and systems but also to safeguard the integrity and IP of every component in the production lifecycle.

To protect your digital identities, maximize operational resilience, and protect your information-rich intellectual property (IP), your organization must transition to modern, hardware-backed phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA), passwordless workflows, and cryptographic protection.

What You’ll Learn Inside the White Paper

• Navigating the Dual Reality of AI: Discover how malicious actors are utilizing artificial intelligence to automate real-time communication in phishing campaigns, and explore the risks introduced by autonomous agentic AI to privileged systems.
• 5 Critical Authentication Requirements: Learn how to evaluate authentication solutions across IT and OT environments based on security, productivity, reliability, durability, and cost.
• The Drawbacks of Legacy MFA: Understand the operational hidden costs and security vulnerabilities of mobile-based MFA, including poor cellular connectivity in OT spaces, device battery dependencies, and susceptibility to SIM swapping.
• Transitioning to a Passwordless Future: Explore the FIDO2/WebAuthn open authentication standard, and learn how device-bound passkeys in hardware security keys offer the highest security assurance and trusted credential lifecycle management.
• Securing the End-to-End Supply Chain: Learn strategies to safeguard third-party access, secure external code-signing systems, and cryptographically certify product parts to eliminate counterfeiting and ensure component integrity.
• Real-World Manufacturing Case Studies: Read about how industry leaders like Schneider Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, Fluidra, and EasyMile successfully deployed hardware-backed phishing-resistant authentication and cryptographic protection to secure critical infrastructure and global production lines.

Featured High-Assurance Solutions

The YubiKey 5 Series & YubiKey 5 FIPS Series

Purpose-built hardware security keys designed for human-to-machine communication.

• Proven to stop 100% of account takeovers in independent research.
• Delivers a fast, tap-and-go passwordless login experience that functions without an internet connection or battery.
• IP68-certified to be dustproof, water-resistant, crush-resistant, and completely safe for no-spark/low-spark manufacturing environments.
• Multi-protocol support (including FIDO2, SmartCard, and OTP) acts as a bridge to secure both legacy industrial systems and modern cloud applications.

The YubiHSM 2 & YubiHSM 2 FIPS

An ultra-portable Hardware Security Module (HSM) nano form factor designed for machine-to-machine communication. 

• Enables secure machine-to-machine communication, preventing the remote theft or accidental distribution of software-stored cryptographic keys.
• Ideally suited to safeguard Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) environments, sign code, and write digital signatures onto electronic components directly on the production line.
• In an era of agentic AI and software-defined power with autonomous decisions, the YubiHSM is the foundation for safeguarding industrial IP and operational safety across the end-to-end lifecycle.

Build a Cyber Resilient Future Today

The YubiKey and YubiHSM 2 from Yubico are secure, portable, and easy-to-use solutions designed to meet manufacturing organizations where they are—seamlessly supporting legacy infrastructure as well as modern, cloud-based systems.

Security is not just a defensive measure, it is the foundation of industrial innovation. Hardening your boundaries with hardware-backed security doesn’t just protect your systems; it empowers your future.