ManuSec USA 2025 in Chicago offered more than just a stage for cybersecurity conversations. It brought into sharp focus a critical operational reality for modern manufacturers: how to protect your most valuable data in increasingly virtualized and AI-enabled environments.
In his session, “Securing Manufacturing Data in the AI Era: From Governance to VDI IP Protection,” Ron Arden, Executive Vice President, CTO, and COO of Fasoo Inc., explored a high-impact use case that is becoming more common. How can manufacturers secure intellectual property inside a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) without sacrificing agility and productivity?
The Challenge: IP Protection in the Age of Virtual Work
Virtual desktops have become common in modern manufacturing workflows, allowing engineers, designers, and contractors to collaborate from anywhere with greater flexibility. They also introduce serious blind spots. Traditional VDI security may restrict access, but it does not fully prevent high-risk activities such as:
- Unauthorized printing of sensitive designs
- Screen captures and recordings of critical IP
- Uncontrolled sharing of sensitive files
A single screenshot of a design taken inside a VDI session can compromise years of research and development investment. With distributed teams and external partners, it is no longer enough to rely on perimeter security or network controls.
The Strategic Shift: Data Centric Security at the Source
Organizations must protect the data itself, not just the environment around it. Instead of piling on more perimeter defenses, manufacturers can safeguard sensitive design files wherever they are stored or accessed, including within virtual environments.
Fasoo’s approach combines several critical capabilities.
- Persistent file-level protection that keeps sensitive documents encrypted at rest, in transit, and in use
- Granular access controls that govern who can view, print, edit, or share files inside and outside the organization
- Screen controls to block screen capture attempts and recordings, apply visible watermarks, and log every attempt.
- Print controls to apply visible and forensic watermarks, and prevent unauthorized output
- Data Security Posture Management to maintain visibility, enforce policy, and audit activity across the data lifecycle
This approach does not slow down innovation. It ensures that collaboration remains both productive and secure.
Real World Impact: Securing IP Without Sacrificing Productivity
In the featured use case, Ron talked about how a global manufacturer originally used cameras in locked rooms to monitor engineers working on sensitive designs. This limited productivity since people couldn’t work where and when needed to meet deadlines. It also made the engineers feel they weren’t trusted to be professional in their job.
The company replaced this outdated system with a more robust solution that allowed them to:
- Block insider threats and unauthorized exfiltration attempts inside VDIs
- Strengthen compliance with full auditability of file activity
- Maintain operational efficiency for engineering and design teams
- Build a stronger culture of security awareness without disrupting daily work
This balance between security and usability is exactly what manufacturers need to stay competitive.
Why This Matters: A New Security Baseline for Manufacturers
As manufacturers adopt cloud, virtualization, and AI at scale, data-centric security is becoming the standard. Network and perimeter controls cannot stop insider threats, shadow IT behavior, or data leakage through unintended channels. VDI environments are only secure if the data they contain is protected and controlled.
The organizations that secure the data from the moment it is created until it is accessed, shared, or archived will lead the way in this new era.
Closing Thoughts: Take Control of Your Data Security
Manufacturing innovation depends on fast and flexible collaboration. That should never come at the expense of protecting your intellectual property. Fasoo’s Data Security Platform gives you the ability to
- Discover and classify sensitive data
- Protect it persistently at the file level
- Enforce consistent policy across VDI, cloud, and hybrid environments
- Gain real-time visibility and full auditability
If your organization is rethinking its security strategy for the age of AI, the right place to start is the data itself.
Contact Fasoo to schedule a tailored consultation to assess your current VDI security posture and explore how a data-centric approach can help you collaborate with confidence while keeping your most valuable information secure.