Industrial 5G and the Uptime Trap: When Connectivity Becomes a Production Risk

In this episode of Cybersecurity Under Pressure: Real Attacks, Real Lessons, we explore the hidden risk behind industrial 5G: the belief that better connectivity automatically means stronger resilience.Private 5G, edge computing and connected industrial assets can improve flexibility, latency and operational visibility. But they also change the risk model of the plant. The production environment becomes more dependent on identity, network slicing, SIM/eSIM management, radio coverage, edge platforms, vendor access, cloud integration and telecom operational processes.The real issue is not whether industrial 5G is secure or insecure by design. The issue is whether organisations understand what they are becoming dependent on. A factory may gain uptime, but also create new failure modes if segmentation, monitoring, access control, fallback procedures and supplier responsibilities are not clearly defined.The key lesson is clear: industrial 5G should not be treated only as a connectivity project. It must be handled as an OT resilience project, where cybersecurity, safety, operations and business continuity are designed together before the plant becomes dependent on it.