Manufacturing cybersecurity: prove it without stopping the line
A plant is pushed two ways at once. Nothing may interrupt production, and a customer keeps sending a security questionnaire that wants evidence. QS-WAN goes in beside the network you already run, and the answers to that questionnaire come out of the console instead of a spreadsheet.
Anything that satisfies one by breaking the other does not get bought.
The customer audits you, and the line still has to run
Manufacturers rarely get a security project of their own. They get a questionnaire from a customer, then another one from a different customer with different wording, and a deadline attached to a contract renewal rather than to a risk assessment.
At the same time the plant floor sets the rules. Equipment runs for decades, changes wait for a shutdown, and anything that risks an unplanned stop is measured against the cost of that stop, which is a number everybody in the building knows.
So the useful question is narrow: what can be added beside the existing network, without touching the machines, that also produces the evidence the questionnaire asks for?
Your customers are your regulator
Large buyers push their own requirements down the chain. The reward for good answers is staying on the approved list, and the penalty for bad ones arrives at renewal.
Suppliers come and go through your network
Machine builders, integrators and maintenance contractors all connect. Each one is a temporary path that somebody has to remember to close.
Two networks, one building
The office side changes weekly and the production side changes yearly. Treating both with the same rules is how either a machine stops or an office laptop ends up on the plant floor.
One box in the diagram, and everything else stays
QS-WAN runs a private network from one console, and QNova Client puts it on laptops, workstations and phones. On a production site it comes down to three moves.
Added beside what you run
A gateway, hardware or software on a host you already have, goes in next to the existing switching. Addresses stay, routers stay, and the change is one box in the diagram rather than a migration.
Office and plant stop being the same network
Segments sit behind their own gateways, and a permitted path between them is an edge you can switch off. A VLAN set to zero trust stays default deny, so a link opened for a commissioning job does not become permanent by accident.
A contractor gets one way in, with an end date you control
Each device carries a certificate per gateway membership. The machine builder who needs access in March holds one for one segment, and revoking it is an action in the console.
Post-quantum by default
Everything between a device, a gateway and the control plane is post-quantum by default, aligned with FIPS 203, FIPS 204 and CNSA 2.0, and hybrid by design. Design files and process data stay valuable for a long time.
Runs where you decide
License QS-WAN onto your own infrastructure, take a gateway we ship configured, or let us host it. A plant that is not allowed out to the internet keeps the console inside the boundary.
The answers your customer is actually asking for
Supply chain questionnaires differ in wording and agree on substance. These four come up almost every time, and the console holds each answer.
Is the production network separated from the office network?
The gateways, their VLANs and the edges between them, drawn in the Network Map rather than described in a policy document.
How do third parties connect, and how do you end it?
One certificate per gateway membership per device, revocable from the console, with the permitted path visible as an edge.
Are your endpoints protected, and can you show the history?
Device posture and protection state, with the detection history kept and paginated rather than reduced to a single figure.
Is any of this checked?
Assessments return pass, fail, partially satisfied or not tested, next to a risk score built from 19 indicators. More on being ready for the audit.
Before you send the answers. A green confirmation means the change was recorded. A gateway that was offline applies it when it reconnects, which on a plant network can be after the shift, so confirm they are online.
What this does not touch on the plant floor
Manufacturing cybersecurity is sold with a lot of ambition. Here is the honest boundary.
The machines
Nothing is installed on a PLC, a robot controller or an HMI appliance. This protects the network around them and the devices people use.
Safety and availability engineering
Redundancy, failover and functional safety are separate disciplines. Nothing here promises the line keeps running.
Nobody is watching for you
QuantumNova is a product, not a managed service. The platform produces the score and the evidence; your team, or your provider, reads them.
Networks it does not run
A VLAN on a switch the platform does not manage is outside its view, so it cannot vouch for that separation.
Bring the questionnaire you have to answer
The fastest way to see whether this fits is to take the questions your customer sent and find where each answer would live. A demonstration is free.
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