Warehouse robots provide shields against cyberthreats
As warehouses go increasingly digital, they also become more vulnerable to hackers. But makers of autonomous mobile warehouse robots say they’ve got that covered, citing the multilayered security protocols built into their systems.
Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
A quick look at business headlines shows that cyberthreats are one of the top challenges confronting American companies. From ransomware to customer-data leaks and intellectual property theft, hackers seem to be lurking around every corner, and they’re not sparing logistics operators.
Big names that have reportedly fended off cyberattacks in the past year include the Seattle-based freight forwarder Expeditors, German shipping group Hapag-Lloyd, Indian container handling facility the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Container Terminal (JNPCT), and German customs broker Hellmann Worldwide Logistics. The rise in cybercrime even led the White House this spring to advise companies to boost their defenses against cyberthreats and prompted the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency to warn that such attacks could threaten critical supply chain operations in particular.
But amid the push to ward off hackers, there’s one sector that is seldom mentioned: the humble warehouse. That omission is partly a product of outdated thinking. For decades, most warehouses were simply large buildings filled to the rafters with inventory—and with very few computers to attack. But that all changed with the advent of warehouse automation. Today’s distribution center is more likely to be a humming hive of robots and other automated equipment, all connected wirelessly to warehouse management systems (WMS) and other software that could potentially be exploited by hackers.
Given these vulnerabilities, it’s no surprise that developers of automated logistics equipment are also adding “armor” to protect their technology from these threats. But adding armor is just the half of it. There are also things warehouse leaders can do to protect their data, these developers say. And the protective measures don’t have to be complicated, they add, noting that simply following some basic security principles can reduce an operation’s exposure to cyberattacks and help safeguard its customers’ data.
SAFE AND SECURE
The first wall of defense for warehouse automation systems such as autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) is having them operate within the building’s own intranet, says Nathan Cao, head of technical services for Geek +, a developer of warehouse robots and artificial intelligence (AI) products.
Although the types of devices being connected to these intranets have evolved over time, companies have successfully protected their intranets for years through industry-standard approaches such as ISO/IEC 27001, Cao says. That standard offers a set of information security management protocols defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to protect assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee details, and information entrusted to them by third parties.
Those same industry standards are also key to protecting communications outside the building, like the data exchanged between automated equipment and various cloud platforms, says Akash Gupta, CTO and co-founder of GreyOrange Pte Ltd., another developer of AMRs and order fulfillment optimization products.
In GreyOrange’s case, the company’s cloud-based GreyMatter fulfillment optimization software exchanges data with each client’s own cloud-based platforms, such as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) or order management system. That connection happens through application programming interfaces (APIs) that are secured with industry-standard processes, Gupta says.
The GreyMatter system then hands down instructions to individual robots in the warehouses, but it sends them only relevant data like bin locations and picking sequences, instead of sensitive data such as customer names, addresses, or financial information.
6 River Systems, another provider of AMRs and fulfillment software, takes a similar approach with its “Chuck” model robots, which work collaboratively with human order pickers to optimize fulfillment operations. Those robots are designed to strictly limit the information they can exchange, the company says.
“We don’t want customer information at 6 River Systems; we only want the data to empower Chuck to path-plan, pick an item, and confirm,” says Gillan Hawkes, 6 River’s vice president of product and analytics. “It’s just metadata, like weight, dimension, and shelf location, not end-user information like a delivery address.”
To obtain that information, the 6 River robots communicate with cloud-based servers through the same hypertext transfer protocol secure (https) system that many people use for secure communication over computer networks while browsing the internet. They further protect their communication outside the building by using APIs with “encrypted tunnels,” the company says.
FINDING SAFETY IN LAYERS
Deploying these multiple layers of cyberdefenses is critical, according to Berkshire Grey, another developer of robotic order fulfillment solutions. The company says that relying on a customer’s corporate intranet alone is no guarantee of overall security, since intruders typically attempt to “punch holes” in these security systems through the very mechanisms—wireless networks and cloud connections—that enable warehouse robots to do their jobs.
For that reason, BerkshireGrey follows the same approach used by its fellow vendors, choosing to exchange only minimal, non-sensitive information with cloud platforms, says Pras Velagapudi, the company’s director of engineering. And it follows a redundant approach to security by building in multiple layers of protection.
“The best defense is one that puts up a fight even if [only a single] layer is compromised,” Velagapudi says. “We employ a multilayer approach to security: restrict information, restrict access, and encrypt data. This ensures that it is not only difficult to compromise the system, but also that if a component gets compromised, it is difficult to use that to get to sensitive information or exploit any other part of the system.”
The task of cyberdefense has never been more important than it is today, as the logistics sector adds new technology to every operation and as global unrest triggers an increase in attacks. A recent report by the cybersecurity service provider Trellix found an increase in cyber activity targeting critical infrastructure sectors during the fourth quarter of 2021, with 27% of those threats targeting transportation and shipping companies.
But suppliers of automated warehouse equipment say they are up to the challenge, applying both information technology (IT) industry standards and specific logistics-focused strategies to fend off attacks and keep fulfillment operations rolling.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.