It's not just manufacturers that are innovating. Cyberattackers are leveraging technologies like automation and generative artificial intelligence (AI), too.
Manufacturing is the most attacked industry globally.1
The potential consequences of a data breach go far beyond damage to reputation, financial penalties and remedial costs. An attack on a manufacturer could compromise public safety by interfering with production processes—there have already been successful attacks on food manufacturers. Manufacturing is one of the few industries where the consequences of a breach could include criminal action against the target.
The 2023 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) examined 1,817 security incidents involving manufacturers. Most (90%) of these involved threat actors outside of the organisation. It concluded that “financially motivated external actors continue to wreak havoc in this industry.” 2
There are many ways that an attacker can monetise an attack on a manufacturer. Like any other industry, manufacturing is susceptible to direct financial attacks, such as banking and payment fraud. Many companies are also susceptible to extortion over the threat of exposing compromised intellectual property and production secrets. But perhaps the biggest risk is the threat of downtime. There's a good reason why manufacturers are the number one target for ransomware attacks3 Faced with the threat of downtime, there's a huge temptation to pay up.
By investing in the right security technology, you can simplify, enhance and automate security across your business to help keep your operations running and better protect your data.
Don't take anything for granted.
Users say that they know to be suspicious of unsolicited emails, according to the DBIR. (89%) and to be wary of attachments (84%), according to the DBIR. Yet, the evidence shows otherwise. Over half (53%) clicked on the link in a simulated targeted phishing attack.4
It's not just users who might not be as well prepared as you think. Complacency can be very dangerous when it comes to cybersecurity. The heat of an attack is a really bad time to find out that one or more of your security solutions aren’t up to the job.
A good example of this is anti distributed denial of service (DDoS) tools. Some solutions attempt to block DDoS at the network edge. The problem is that attacks are growing fast. According to the Verizon 2023 DBIR, the median attack rate grew from 1.4 Gbps to 2.2 Gbps (57%) since the previous edition.5 Stopping attacks of this scale can only be done effectively at the network core.
An experienced partner can help you assess your environment and the tools that you have in place and identify areas for improvement. They could also help you set up an effective employee training program, including regular refresher sessions. Informed employees can be an important line of defence.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.
Attracting, training and retaining cybersecurity professionals can be challenging and distract human resources away from strategic pursuits.
Simplifying solutions and leveraging automation has a critical role to play in easing the burden on the internal team. But most companies still choose to rely on third-party help.
External partners can do much more than provide staff augmentation. They can provide expertise and share experience gained from tackling a wide range of security challenges.
The right partner can help you turn security into a competitive advantage by creating a robust environment that enables innovation and allows you to focus on what differentiates your business.
Verizon has vast experience helping manufacturers solve some of their biggest challenges. We have decades of relevant experience, which enables us to provide practical and effective advice. Our global network, computing and security ecosystem can help you manage risk transformation, accelerate change and better achieve the promise of digital technologies.