From defence drones and railway signalling to industrial robots, protecting data in transit is becoming essential to operational safety and resilience.
A drone can be grounded without a shot being fired. Railway signalling can be disrupted without physical access to the tracks. Industrial robots can be manipulated into executing incorrect instructions. In each scenario, the vulnerability may lie not in the machinery itself, but in the information guiding its actions.
As connected systems increasingly control physical operations, the integrity of machine-to-machine communication is emerging as a critical cybersecurity concern. Commands, sensor readings and operational data move continuously between devices and control systems. If these exchanges are intercepted or manipulated, the consequences can extend beyond information theft to operational disruption and potential safety risks.
For India, the stakes are rising alongside investments in defence technology, railway modernisation and industrial automation. According to the International Federation of Robotics, India installed nearly 10,500 industrial robots in 2025, a 15% increase over the previous year. Drones are supporting surveillance and reconnaissance, advanced signalling technologies are helping manage railway operations, and industrial robots are performing increasingly precise manufacturing tasks.
Each application depends on the timely and accurate exchange of information. Even when equipment operates as intended, compromised communication can undermine the decisions it makes and the instructions it follows.
“Machines may function exactly as designed, but their reliability also depends on the authenticity and integrity of the information they receive.” — Srinivas Shekar, Co-Founder and CEO, Pantherun Technologies
Cybersecurity Awareness Month provides an opportunity to broaden the discussion beyond conventional IT security and recognise the importance of protecting the communication layer connecting operational technologies. Encryption helps safeguard information from unauthorised disclosure, authentication helps establish whether a message or instruction comes from a trusted source, and data-integrity controls help detect unauthorised changes.
These protections need to be incorporated from the design stage, particularly in environments where devices must respond to instructions in real time. Security measures must also account for operational requirements, ensuring that protection does not compromise the availability or responsiveness of critical systems.
As India’s physical infrastructure becomes more connected and automated, cybersecurity must extend beyond protecting networks and databases to securing the information that machines depend on. The resilience of critical infrastructure rests not only on the engineering of the equipment, but also on the trustworthiness of every signal that guides its operation.