CyManII releases roadmap to protect manufacturers from cyber-attacks

Howard Grimes, CyManII chief executive officer, says the new roadmap will strengthen U.S. manufacturers from cyber threats.

JULY 11, 2022 — The Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII) has released a roadmap to help manufacturers strengthen their cybersecurity infrastructure. The roadmap will help businesses understand how CyManII’s technical efforts can be leveraged to achieve a secure manufacturing architecture while also focusing on fundamental business goals including productivity, quality control and profits.

“This roadmap outlines a pathway for U.S. manufacturers to cyber-harden their systems, processes and supply chains today while also presenting a robust research, development and deployment strategy that introduces cyber innovations that are threat informed and provide verifiable security guarantees,” said CyManII Chief Executive Officer Howard Grimes, who also serves as UTSA associate vice president and associate vice provost for Institutional Initiatives.

The roadmap provides a unifying national plan to drive the nation’s manufacturers toward processes that are data-intensive, digitized and include emergent technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to drive productivity gains in the face of growing complexity and competition in the industry.

The cybersecurity innovations championed by CyManII will enable manufacturers to ensure that their intellectual property, vital data and critical processes are cyber-secure. These protections are essential to keeping the U.S. manufacturing industry competitive within the global market and to the country’s national and economic security.

“CyManII is charting an aggressive course to a more secure and prosperous manufacturing industry.”

Led by UTSA, CyManII was launched in 2020 by the U.S. Department of Energy as a Clean Energy Manufacturing Institute to bring together the manufacturing industry, research and academic institutions, and federal government agencies to develop technologies that enable the security and growth of the U.S. manufacturing sector. It is funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office and co-managed with the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response.

Simultaneously, CyManII is involved in collaborative research to design and implement next-generation architectures that are cyber-inspired and secure by design.

Joining Grimes on this project are renowned CyManII team members including Ken Fowler, chief operating officer and chief information security officer; Krystel Castillo, vice president for energy efficiency; Gabriela Ciocarlie, vice president for securing automation and secure manufacturing architecture; Jeff Prevost, vice president for secure cloud architecture; and Tymeeka Middleton, director of education and workforce development.

With help from Nexight Group LL, the forward-looking overview this group created offers insights into the evolving vision of CyManII by outlining its technical and operational approaches to achieve the twin goals of advancing energy efficiency in manufacturing and securing these innovative technologies.

Their roadmap offers insights into the evolving vision of CyManII. It outlines CyManII’s technical and operational approaches to achieve the institute’s twin goals of advancing energy efficiency in manufacturing and securing these innovative technologies.

“CyManII is charting an aggressive course to a more secure and prosperous manufacturing industry,” said Kelly Speakes-Backman, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “The initiatives detailed in this roadmap will ensure that our protective measures keep pace with advancements in automation, digitization and a range of advanced manufacturing technologies, protecting our domestic manufacturing and our economy.”

— Emily Guajardo