Protecting productivity: the imperative of cybersecurity in manufacturing

As the global landscape shifts, the manufacturing sector faces new challenges and opportunities.

The integration of AI tools into manufacturing processes promises increased efficiency and innovation but opens the door to evolving cyber threats targeting vulnerable supply chains.

Supply chains are the backbone of the manufacturing industry, intricately woven into daily life. Disruptions can have profound impacts on consumers, as seen with the baby formula shortage of 2022. Rising cyberattacks threaten production on a global scale, with stakes that grow higher as supply chains expand.

Cybersecurity is fast becoming the frontline of industrial continuity. With increasing connected factories, digital workflows, and integrated value chains, the question is urgent: Is the world prepared to protect its expanding industrial base?

When code can crash a conveyor belt

Cyberthreats have evolved beyond stealing data. Today, they disable production, infiltrate operational technology, infect industrial control systems, and weaponize disruption.

The target isn’t always the server room – it’s often the shop floor. As the digital and physical worlds converge, cybersecurity now extends to every connected device, operational system, and edge environment, making operational technology (OT) a prime target.

Think of it this way: ten years ago, protecting your home meant locking the front door. Today, with smart locks, cameras, and connected appliances, each device creates a new vulnerability. It’s the same for manufacturers—every connected machine or sensor is a potential entry point for attackers.

Just recently, in May 2025, Nucor, one of the largest steel producers in the US – detected a cybersecurity breach that forced the company to halt several production lines at multiple locations.

A cyber breach today isn’t just an IT problem. It’s a business crisis with ripple effects that impact everyday people.

The rise of smart manufacturing brings new cyber risks

The swift adoption of automation and robotics is propelling manufacturing to new heights, but it also expands the cyber threat landscape. For instance, Amazon has deployed 750,000 industrial robots over the last decade, and US industrial robot deployment continues to grow rapidly.

Each connected device enhances efficiency but introduces new vulnerabilities. Protecting both information and infrastructure is now essential to maintaining business continuity.

A report by Dragos, revealed an 87% increase in ransomware attacks on industrial organizations last year alone, with average ransomware payments in manufacturing reaching $1.5 million.

Industry 5.0: Where cyber resilience is core to progress

In the era of Industry 5.0—where human-centric innovation, automation, and sustainability intersect—cybersecurity must be embedded into industrial architecture itself. Cybersecurity is not an insurance policy; it is a capability. One that ensures uptime, safeguards trust, and protects progress.

From reactive to resilient

Resilience in manufacturing means building an unshakable foundation that supports both IT and OT security. A robust network underpins supply chain integrity, ensures production continuity, and mitigates risks before escalation.

For example, a leading European bakery overcame connectivity challenges by implementing an SDWAN solution, eliminating long outages and ensuring centralized management of infrastructure at 12 manufacturing sites.

This approach reduced downtime, enabled uninterrupted access to critical production systems, and streamlined security monitoring.

This centralization not only improved operational efficiency but also enhanced security posture by simplifying network monitoring, traffic control, and failover processes. With near-zero downtime, the network ensured uninterrupted access to SAP-based production systems, critical for managing orders, recipes, and inventory.

Proactive measures like these will define the future of manufacturing. Here are key steps the industry must prioritize:

• Prioritize OT security assessments at scale Routine vulnerability mapping across operational environments is essential. To ensure full coverage and scale of these assessments, security leaders should establish an assessment framework that spans both legacy and next-gen systems to identify weaknesses that could lead to potential threats.
• Embed supply chain integrity with AI-powered cyber defense: Cyber hygiene must be a core vendor evaluation metric. By controlling third-party privileges during maintenance and enforcing robust access management through threat detection, monitoring, and response, businesses can minimize g exposure.
• Adopt Zero Trust architectures & SASE by default Every identity, device, and application must verify its legitimacy before gaining access. Implementing Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) frameworks ensure security regardless of where users or applications reside.
• Elevate cyber risk to a boardroom metric: Security must be framed in operational terms—hours of production lost, reputational damage, and downstream disruption—not just data breaches. IT leaders can strengthen executive alignment by translating security risks into operational impact, measuring and reporting on KPIs like hours of production lost, reputational harm or customer churn, putting a focus on real business outcomes.

Securing the future of manufacturing

In a hyperconnected world, securing supply chains will define the success and resilience of the manufacturing industry. Cyber resilience must be seen as foundational infrastructure for industrial growth.

America’s ability to safeguard smart factories, digital supply chains, and interconnected ecosystems will not only shape its economic growth but also global operations. In a hyper-connected economy, resilience is power.

We must embrace a mindset shift, treating cybersecurity not as a technical safeguard but as essential industrial infrastructure. The need for this transformation is now.

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