Secure mechanical design and manufacturing: Preventing IP theft via cybersecurity

The impending threat of Intellectual Property (IP) in design and manufacturing from mechanical engineering is increasingly furthering concerns on using digitized production and globalized supply chains. In conjunction with the greater adoption of CAD, PLM, and AM, the risk now is greater with respect to cyberattacks, unauthorized access, and industrial espionage. The paper analyzes certain cybersecurity challenges in mechanical engineering, like: secure design, encrypted manufacturing workflows, and best practices for preventing IP theft. It analyzes the threats ranging from cyberattacks on the CAD, engineering files, weaknesses in the supply chain, reverse engineering, and insider threats. The paper puts forward security frameworks, encryption schemes, blockchain-based authentication, and ZTA to protect the design and production data. In addition, the case studies from the aerospace, automotive, and industrial automation domains showcase the real incidents of IP theft and countermeasures used to curb access to such practices. Finally, the paper towards the end introduces the developments in the future of cybersecurity concerning mechanical engineering, centering on the role of AI-enabled real-time suspicious behavior detection and secure cloud collaboration platforms. Providing robust cybersecurity ensures that manufacturers will be able to protect their proprietary designs while retaining competitiveness and mechanical systems' immunity to cyber threats.