Digital manufacturing is production that turns software-defined designs into physical parts using machine control, such as 3D printers, CNC systems, and automated toolpaths. Instead of relying only on manual fabrication, the process depends on CAD files, process parameters, firmware, and material settings to produce the final object. That makes the digital side part of the product itself.
In cyber security, this matters because attackers can target the design file, print profile, controller, or update process to alter a part without obvious visual changes. A corrupted geometry file or modified machine setting can create weak, unsafe, or counterfeit components. Defenders protect these systems with access control, file integrity checks, signed designs, segmented production networks, and audit logs for job changes. In practice, digital manufacturing is both an engineering advantage and a trust boundary: if the data is wrong, the hardware can be wrong too.