Rockwell Automation is strengthening its focus on industrial cybersecurity through participation in Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, a global initiative focused on improving cyber resilience for critical software and infrastructure. The collaboration, announced in September 2026, brings advanced artificial intelligence into the vulnerability management process for connected industrial systems.

AI for Industrial Vulnerability Management

Through Project Glasswing, Rockwell Automation’s security teams are exploring controlled access to Anthropic’s Claude Mythos 5 model. The objective is to accelerate several important cybersecurity activities, including vulnerability discovery, validation, prioritization and remediation.

For industrial manufacturers, these functions are increasingly important as traditional control networks become more connected to enterprise IT systems, cloud platforms, remote services and data analytics applications. A vulnerability in a connected industrial environment can potentially affect not only digital information but also production availability and operational continuity.

Rockwell’s participation therefore focuses on using AI as a defensive technology rather than simply adding another cybersecurity monitoring layer.

Cybersecurity Becomes Part of Industrial Automation

Modern smart factories depend on interconnected PLCs, industrial networks, HMI systems, drives, controllers, sensors and software platforms. This connectivity provides greater visibility and flexibility, but it also increases the number of systems that must be protected.

Rockwell Automation has been expanding its OT cybersecurity approach across areas such as asset inventory, vulnerability management, industrial networking, monitoring, incident response and recovery. Its recent cybersecurity initiatives emphasize integrating security into everyday manufacturing operations rather than treating it as an isolated IT function.

AI can potentially help security teams analyze large quantities of technical information and identify relationships between vulnerabilities, software components and connected assets. For industrial environments containing thousands of devices, this type of automated analysis may help security specialists focus their attention on the issues requiring immediate investigation.

Supporting Secure-by-Design Automation

Another important aspect of the Project Glasswing collaboration is the emphasis on finding and addressing software weaknesses earlier in the development and maintenance lifecycle.

This approach aligns with the growing concept of secure-by-design industrial automation. Instead of waiting for vulnerabilities to become operational incidents, manufacturers can incorporate security considerations during product development, system engineering, deployment and maintenance.

For Rockwell Automation customers, this direction is particularly relevant to connected automation architectures where controllers, engineering software, industrial networks and production data increasingly operate as part of one digital ecosystem.

AI and OT Security for Smart Manufacturing

The combination of artificial intelligence and industrial cybersecurity is expected to become increasingly important as manufacturers expand smart manufacturing initiatives.

Rockwell Automation has also highlighted cybersecurity in its recent ROKStudios programming, focusing on topics such as IT/OT convergence, asset visibility, network segmentation, risk management and the security implications of increasingly connected production environments.

The company is also demonstrating AI, machine learning, integrated control and cybersecurity technologies for water and wastewater applications, showing how these capabilities can extend beyond conventional factory automation into critical infrastructure.

Outlook for Industrial Automation

Rockwell Automation’s participation in Project Glasswing reflects a broader industry shift toward combining automation, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

As factories become more connected and increasingly rely on software-driven control architectures, cybersecurity is becoming an integral part of industrial system engineering. AI-assisted vulnerability analysis could help security teams process complex information faster, while secure-by-design development can help reduce exposure throughout the lifecycle of automation products and systems.

For manufacturers adopting PLC, SCADA, MES, industrial networking and AI technologies, the development of AI-enabled cyber defense represents another step toward more resilient and secure smart manufacturing environments.