Published: April 21, 2026Manufacturing has become the number one target for ransomware attacks, surpassing finance and healthcare. According to IBM Security’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index, manufacturing has led all industries in ransomware incidents, representing roughly a quarter of attacks. Based on my experience working with manufacturers, most understand the risk exists but are not sure where to start or what actually moves the needle. Whether you are responsible for managing IT for a multi-site manufacturing organization or a plant manager at a single facility, here are the 7 most important cybersecurity practices that your organization should prioritize to reduce risk.
Table of Contents
1. Start With a Cybersecurity Framework
Before you buy a single tool or hire a consultant, you need a map. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is the one I recommend most often to manufacturers because it was built for environments exactly like yours: organizations managing both IT systems and operational technology.
The framework organizes everything into five functions:
- Identify
- Protect
- Detect
- Respond
- Recover.
What I like about it is that it forces you to ask the right questions before spending money. What do we have? What are we protecting? Where are the gaps?
It’s the answer to these questions that shape the rest of your cybersecurity plan. A cybersecurity plan built around a framework gives your team a shared language and a repeatable process. This is especially important for multi-site organizations where an assessment is required for each specific location.
Author tip: for additional information on cybersecurity in manufacturing read our article: how to improve cybersecurity in manufacturing.
2. Establish Security Zones Between IT and OT
This is one of the most important things a manufacturer can do, and one of the most commonly skipped. Your corporate IT network (email, ERP, CRM, etc.) should not have open access to your operational technology (OT) environment.
When those two environments are connected without proper separation, an attacker who gets into one can move freely into the other. I have seen ransomware spread from a single compromised laptop all the way to production equipment because there was nothing in between to slow it down.
Network segmentation creates security zones that limit that kind of lateral movement. It does not have to be complicated to be effective. The goal is to make sure a breach in one area does not automatically become a breach everywhere.
3. Know Every Device on Your Network
You cannot protect what you cannot see. This sounds obvious, but manufacturers are adding IIoT sensors, connected machines, and remote monitoring tools faster than most IT teams can track. Many plants are also still running legacy PLCs and older operating systems that were never designed with cybersecurity in mind and are no longer receiving patches from vendors.
Start with a full inventory. Every device, every connection, every piece of equipment that touches your network. From there you can prioritize what needs attention first. Older systems with no patch support and direct network access are your highest risk. Knowing they exist is the first step to managing them.
4. Use Multi-Factor Authentication to Protect Access Points
Multi-factor authentication, or MFA, requires a user to verify their identity through more than one method before gaining access to a system. A password plus a code sent to a phone, for example. It is one of the simplest and most effective controls available, and based on what I see in manufacturing, it is still not used consistently enough.
Remote access is where this matters most. Vendor logins, remote desktop connections, admin accounts for control systems — these are the entry points attackers go after first. MFA does not make them impossible to crack, but it raises the cost of an attack significantly. For sensitive systems, consider adding privileged access management tools that monitor and log who is accessing what and when.
5. Train Your People: Human Error Opens Most Doors
In 2015, a German steel mill was breached when an employee opened a phishing email with a malicious attachment. The attackers gained access to the manufacturing execution system and caused physical damage to equipment. One email. One click.
This is not an old story. It is still happening. Phishing remains the most common entry point into manufacturing environments, and the targets are increasingly engineers and operations staff, not just office workers.
Regular training does not need to be long or complicated. Teach employees how to spot a suspicious email, what to do if they think they received one, and why using personal devices or external connections to access company systems creates risk. Phishing simulations run a few times a year keep people sharp. Security awareness on the plant floor is just as important as safety awareness. Treat it the same way.
6. Extend Your Security Into the Supply Chain
Modern manufacturing runs on a network of suppliers, logistics providers, and software vendors. Each one of those relationships is a potential entry point into your systems. Attackers know this and they use it.
In late 2024, a ransomware group breached Blue Yonder, a major supply chain software provider. The attack disrupted warehouse operations and shipping workflows across multiple companies that relied on their platform. In 2023, semiconductor equipment manufacturer MKS Instruments suffered a ransomware attack that delayed shipments across their supply chain and cost the company $200 million in lost revenue.
These were not direct attacks. They came through trusted third-party connections. Ask your key vendors how they protect the systems that connect to yours. Limit what access they have to only what they need, and review those permissions regularly.
7. Build an Incident Response Plan Before You Need One
At some point, something will go wrong. A device will be compromised, a phishing email will get through, ransomware will find a way in. How fast you recover depends almost entirely on whether you have a plan in place before it happens.
An incident response plan does not have to be a hundred-page document. It needs to answer a few specific questions: Who does what when an incident is detected? Who gets notified and in what order? How do you isolate affected systems without shutting down the entire plant? What does recovery look like?
The other thing I always recommend is running tabletop exercises that include both your security team and your production team. In manufacturing, those two groups often have different priorities during a crisis, and working through a scenario together before a real event surfaces those differences early.
Speed matters. Defined roles matter. Practice makes both possible.
Building Good Cybersecurity Takes Time
None of these seven practices requires a massive budget or a dedicated security team to get started. What they require is a decision to take the risk seriously and a willingness to work through it methodically.
The manufacturers I see doing this well started with a framework, got visibility into their environment, and built from there. Small steps, done consistently, add up to a much stronger posture than a one-time project ever will.
If you are not sure where your organization stands today, a cybersecurity assessment is the right first move. It will tell you what you have, where the gaps are, and what to prioritize.