Cybersecurity that fails to keep pace with innovation leaves businesses and their bottom lines open to risk. With the manufacturing industry’s technological evolution in full swing, this reality is particularly pertinent.
Companies striving to stay competitive are exploring a variety of innovations, ranging from cloud adoption to sophisticated automation. These advancements offer the industry opportunities to improve operational efficiency and cut costs, but they also come with some unnerving challenges.
Manufacturing’s willingness to embrace technology has made it one of the most targeted industries for cyberattacks, accounting for nearly 25 percent of reported incidents across sectors. And whether big or small, those breaches are never cheap.
The average cost of an industrial data breach in 2024 reached $5.56 million, up from $4.73 million just a year prior. For manufacturers, threats could also mean disrupted operations, compromised proprietary designs, loss of customer trust and regulatory penalties.
The driving force behind the elevated risk is a sense of misguided confidence commonly seen among manufacturers. Many focus solely on meeting compliance checklists and treat cybersecurity as a box to tick rather than an ongoing, strategic effort. However, cybercriminals don’t select their victims based on who has, or has not, completed a compliance report. So, it’s time to redefine what it means to secure manufacturing operations.
Embedding Cybersecurity into Every Aspect of Technology
The manufacturing industry is becoming more software-driven thanks to the rising popularity of cloud computing and integrated technologies like IoT, AI and machine learning. These advancements enable powerful new applications such as connected car capabilities, augmented reality visualization for customers, next-generation field service platforms, & much more.
The results — such as expedited production and optimized workflows — are impressive, but maintenance is required. Strong cybersecurity practices are essential to safeguard companies’ investments in technology, and this often means going beyond the minimum requirements.
When companies scale their operations, additional tactics must be added strategically. For example, the convergence of cloud and data center security demands a more unified approach. Manufacturers operating across hybrid and multi-cloud environments need network visibility, seamlessly integrated with risk assessment and automation to maintain security across all infrastructures.
Without a unified view, teams may struggle with enforcing consistent policies and meeting growing compliance requirements, which require standardized yet adaptive frameworks. Converging cloud and data center security streamlines operations, improves real-time threat detection and ensures companies are aligned across the board in their efforts to protect critical information.
Also, it’s not uncommon for a growing manufacturer to go from managing a handful of firewalls to dealing with thousands, even millions, of distributed policies affecting countless endpoints and cloud environments. This scale is difficult to manage without integrated protection measures.
But when cybersecurity is embedded into every facet of an organization’s technology implementation, known as cybersecurity by design, the challenge becomes surmountable. A proactive strategy should position cybersecurity as a core component of development, rather than an enhancement tacked on later to address vulnerabilities. Executives must see to it that any new technology supports security protocols comprehensive enough to underpin compliance requirements, not the other way around.
Going Beyond Basic Compliance
Cybersecurity is the foundation of operational resilience, protecting supply chains, safeguarding intellectual property and minimizing production downtime. These are compelling reasons for manufacturers to view security as a critical operational priority rather than a basic compliance requirement. Shifting from a reactive to a proactive security approach takes time, but the journey starts with a few key steps:
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Start with hygiene: The foundation always begins with strong cybersecurity hygiene. Company leaders should assess existing infrastructure, identify what’s necessary and eliminate what’s redundant or outdated. This ensures a cleaner, stronger base on which to build.
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Prioritize efficiency at scale: Effective cybersecurity requires tools and processes built to scale. It’s no longer just about firewalls and antivirus software; manufacturers need automated, centralized solutions for managing security policies across dynamic, multi-cloud environments.
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Think beyond today’s compliance: Even if regulations don’t mandate certain security measures yet, they will eventually. Stay ahead by following best practices, even when they’re not required. For example, leverage advanced systems like AI-powered monitoring or endpoint encryption, which go beyond compliance standards to actively defend against emerging threats.
The Risk of Doing Nothing Has Consequences
Weak cybersecurity doesn’t just increase the risk of breaches — it can disrupt production, strain supply chains and erode customer trust. Manufacturing is the top target for ransomware groups, and the damage extends far beyond the ransom itself. The resulting downtime can be devastating, halting operations and causing significant financial losses.
Since 2018, ransomware attacks have cost the manufacturing industry $17 billion in downtime, with daily losses averaging $1.9 million.
In addition to causing unwanted and costly downtime by halting production, breaches can expose sensitive intellectual property and disrupt supply chains. A ransomware attack can leave manufacturers unable to meet customer demands for extended periods, while hackers target custom product designs, supplier information and customer data, jeopardizing competitive advantage and allowing counterfeit goods to infiltrate the market.
The interconnected nature of manufacturing also means that multiple partners and systems can be affected by a single breach that ripples across the supply chain. In today’s landscape of increasingly sophisticated threats, meeting minimum security compliance requirements is insufficient. Cybersecurity must be positioned as an overarching business priority rather than a technical concern.
The push toward the cloud and advanced digital technologies presents manufacturers with enormous opportunities — but only if security evolves in tandem. Compliance standards should act as a foundation to accompany official policies. Requirements serve as the foundation upon which strong strategies are built, incorporating integrated, scalable, and proactive measures.
Evaluating cybersecurity readiness, identifying system gaps and testing the effectiveness of existing controls will help to ensure protocols are designed to be as airtight as possible. Ultimately, a robust cybersecurity strategy goes beyond merely avoiding the consequences of failure; it empowers businesses to operate with confidence and agility.
Kyle Wickert, Field Chief Technology Officer at AlgoSec, is a skilled information security professional and pre-sales engineer. Kyle specializes in network technologies, automation and information security.