3D Printing is a $4 billion a year business. 3D printing is literally being used in everything from cars to bridges, art to food, and is challenging the validity of centuries-old manufacturing practices.
Indeed, the FAA recently certified the first 3D-printed part for a commercial jet engine. It seems like we're already entrusting our lives to 3D-printed equipment on an almost daily basis.
However, like the electronics and computer industries, this new technology is beginning to be threatened by some of the dangers of cyberspace.
A team of cybersecurity engineers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering published a study in The journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, in which they reveal findings and, thankfully, offer some initial recommendations for combating the issue.
3D printers , as you no doubt know, create from a CAD file sent in by a designer. The manufacturing software then analyzes the design, breaks it into “slices” and positions the printer head so that the printer can apply materials in extremely thin layers.
“These are potential hotbeds for attacks that could have devastating impacts on end-users and significant financial implications in the form of pipelines,” said Nikhil Gupta. As the orientation of the print head or product during printing could cause up to a 25% variation in its inherent power, this means that anyone wishing to disrupt the end product could do so with little to no detection.
The researchers found that when they introduced sub-millimeter defects between printed layers, the defects were undetectable by common industrial monitoring techniques such as ultrasonic imaging, and over time, the materials weakened due to fatigue, heat, light, and moisture, becoming more vulnerable to these small defects.
The simplest thing for an attacker is to break into any 3D printer that is connected to the internet and introduce internal defects at the printing stage that no one will discover until the part fails to be created.
Zeltmann, the lead author of the study, said that to protect themselves from these risks, companies should not keep their 3D printers connected to the internet.
Information source: cadagency.co.uk
