Cyber-attacks could disrupt smart factories by targeting time itself

A cyber-attack does not always need to steal data or shut systems down to cause damage. Sometimes it only needs to shift the clock. Researchers at the University of East London (UEL), in collaboration with industry, have identified a critical weakness in the timing systems that keep modern automated industries running—and warn attackers could exploit it to quietly destabilize factories, robotics and other safety‑critical infrastructure. The work is published as a comprehensive analysis of threats to Time‑Triggered Ethernet (TTEthernet) clock synchronization in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

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