Today’s world is one where smart device are used for collecting and exchanging customer information. However, it is also a time of international cyber warfare. This means that for many manufacturing companies, data protection is a huge challenge.
With the implementation of GDPR, manufacturers are faced with new challenges when it comes to data protection and compliance. Now they have much more than just their customer’s information to be worried about. With this in mind, use the tips and information here to learn how to effectively protect data and information in the manufacturing industry.
Know What’s Coming
Today, businesses are required to be completely transparent about the customer data they collect. This transparency includes how they plan to protect it. More and more manufacturers, especially those in the automotive sector, are now collecting data from the products they sell even after they are in the customer’s possession.
This helps the manufacturer better understand how the product is used, any design flaws that are present, and how to improve future models. However, there must be a careful line when it comes to handling this information. If the data can be linked to one, specific person, it is considered “personal information” and needs to be handled based on the rules and regulations outlined in the GDPR.
If manufacturers are handling personal information, they must state this and tell customers what they have and why. They must also be able to demonstrate they have a customer’s continued permission to acquire this information before it is used. The right a customer has to be forgotten is what poses the most challenges here. If the data that is collected by a device is important to how the services work, are the customers able to opt-out of the gathering of data without causing the service to be redundant?
Be sure that all personal information collected is handled properly – this is the only way to manage these expectations.
Protect Plans
Another challenge for manufacturers is being able to defend and protect their intellectual property. Attacks on businesses are growing and becoming more dangerous than ever before. Most of these attacks are considered basic – focused on the company firewalls with an attempt to access building control systems and security cameras. However, it is necessary for manufacturers to also stay aware of a valuable asset that they have – design data. A manufacturing company would find it virtually impossible to further innovate without having confidence that the ideas they had were secure.
This is why product design data and plans for production purposes usually require a much higher level of encryption than virtually any other company information available. This applies to everything from being able to store it safely to sharing it with the business’s partners.
When it comes to data security, manufacturing companies cannot sit on their laurels. Instead, they need to take action to ensure that this information is protected and that no serious issues or threats arise. In the long run, this will pay off and help ensure the desired results are achieved.