Topical Roundup: October 2025

Summary

Because October is Cybersecurity Month, this month’s roundup highlights the wealth of news and new products related to OT cybersecurity and safety, as well as highlights from other topics, including the secrets of space robotics, how to use automation solutions to measure canal water and what wireless power can do to solve IoT’s growing waste problem.  Get the news delivered straight to your inbox by subscribing to Automation.com. 

Industrial Cybersecurity

61% of Cybersecurity Professionals Plan AI Adoption as Manufacturing Faces Growing Cyber Risks: Rockwell Automation has published its 10^th annual State of Smart Manufacturing Report, which surveyed more than 1,500 manufacturing leaders. The report shows how cybersecurity is becoming a central business issue. 

75% of Critical Infrastructure Organizations Endorse ‘Secure by Operations’ Strategy to Defend Against OT Cyberattacks:  A global study by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Schneider Electric reveals that 91% of global organizations experienced at least one OT breach or failure in the past 18 months, even with security measures in place.
 

OT Security Financial Risk Report: Incident Response Planning Critical for Risk Reduction: The report from Dragos quantifies the financial risk of cyberattacks on operational technology (OT) systems—critical infrastructure, manufacturing, energy and more.  In a typical year, $31.1 billion in financial risk is associated with OT cybersecurity events.

The National Cyber Security Agency–State of Qatar Joins ISASecure: The National Cyber Security Agency (NCSA)–State of Qatar has officially joined ISASecure, the globally recognized certification program that validates conformance to the ISA/IEC 62443 series of standards for industrial automation and control systems (IACS) cybersecurity.

Why Modernization Holds the Key to Preventing OT Cyber Attacks: While IT teams typically possess robust cybersecurity expertise, protecting control systems is often left to control engineers whose core areas of expertise understandably lie elsewhere. Therefore, if you’re not modernizing, it’s like leaving your house keys in your front door.

Report: Ransomware Decreased by 13% in August: For five consecutive months, ransomware attacks remained below 500, according to NCC Group, marking a 13% decline from July. Compared to the spike of activity in February and March, recent ransomware levels appear quiet. But the average attack volume from April to August still poses a significant threat.

IIoT & Digital Transformation

How Manufacturers Can Turn Real-Time Data Into Productivity Gains: Nearly half of manufacturers report that integration and data challenges are holding back automation and productivity. While 74% of manufacturers consider real-time data essential, many still struggle to act on it. The right digital infrastructure can ensure the timely and efficient collection of data from devices.

Space Robotics Holds the Blueprint for Safer, More Resilient Industrial Automation: Manufacturers don’t have to invest in new tools or gamble on emerging tech. The blueprint for smarter industrial operations has been orbiting 250 miles above you all along. NASA’s Canadarm2 has been operating on the International Space Station for 24 years without a single mission-critical failure.

Factory Automation & Control

Why America Needs More Engineers and More Robots: China graduates roughly 350,000 mechanical engineers annually, supported by a steady pipeline of electricians, welders and technicians. In contrast, the U.S. produces just 45,000 mechanical engineers per year—a fraction of what’s needed to sustain modern manufacturing, let alone fuel its growth. 

New A3 Report Signals Steady Automation Investment in First Half of 2025: The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) says robot orders increased by 4.3% and revenue rose 7.5% in the first half of 2025 compared with the first half of 2024. North American companies ordered 17,635 robots valued at $1.094 billion in the first six months of 2025—a promising sign for continued automation investment.  

Process Automation & Safety

Turning Pressure Safety Valves into Smart Devices to Enhance Process Safety Here we examine how the incorporation of upstream and downstream pressure monitoring, rapid data collection and the inclusion of appropriate safety features in control system design can transform pressure safety valves from straightforward passive devices into intelligent, diagnosable assets.

Rethinking Industrial Alarms for a Safer, Smarter Plant: As industrial environments become increasingly complex and digitized, the expectations placed on alarm systems are also growing. Here we examine the evolving role of alarms and discuss how modern alarm design, integration and management strategies are reshaping operational safety and efficiency. 

Enterprise Architecture and Networks

Operational Maturity: The Missing Link in Cybersecurity Success: The biggest risk to organizations isn’t the sophistication of cybercriminals—it’s the absence of mature, repeatable processes. Aligning security processes with business objectives can transform reactive security postures into resilient, strategic programs. 

IoT’s Growing Waste Crisis: Wireless Power Offers Urgent Escape Route: The rapid proliferation of IoT devices has created unprecedented challenges. From environmental impact to inefficiencies in maintenance, the scale of the issue is staggering as, every day, millions of disposable and short-lived batteries are discarded globally.

Product & Company Updates 

Mitsubishi Electric Acquires Nozomi Networks to Improve Industrial Cyber Defenses:  Nozomi Networks will be a wholly owned subsidiary, operating independently of Mitsubishi Electric. The acquisition brings Mitsubishi Electric a strong and growing AI-powered, cloud-first cybersecurity software business with an award-winning track record of scalable innovation.

Dragos Platform 3.0 Delivers Quick Path to Effective OT Cyber Defense: The Dragos Platform’s new Insights Hub consolidates risk-based vulnerability, asset and threat alerts into a single prioritized view, while streamlined workflows, AI-enhanced vulnerability processes and smaller footprint deployment options reduce time-to-value for industrial organizations.

Belden Industrial Firewall Detects and Stops Sophisticated Threats: It enables layered traffic analysis beyond basic filtering. Stateful packet inspection confirms packets belong to valid sessions, deep packet inspection verifies payload structure and content, and intrusion detection and prevention identify anomalies or malicious patterns in traffic. 

Nozomi and Schneider Electric Deliver World’s First Security Sensor Embedded in Remote Terminal Units: With Nozomi Arc embedded in Schneider SCADAPack 47xi Smart RTUs, security and operations teams gain previously unavailable visibility at the control device layer of their industrial automation equipment and field assets as well as the ability to analyze and deter control device-level threats.

_{This column also appears in Automation.com Monthly's 2nd Annual Cybersecurity Trends report (October 2025).}