Did you know that the manufacturing industry was the most targeted sector for ransomware anywhere in the world in 2025, with incidents up 56% year on year, and it remains the most targeted sector into 2026 thus far. If you run IT for a manufacturer, that statistic isn't background noise, it's a description of the environment you're already operating in.
So why does this happen? Manufacturers are attractive targets because production downtime is expensive, operational technology is often older and harder to patch than office IT, and supply chains give attackers an indirect route in through smaller suppliers. The sector's own sourcing, distribution and logistics data also carries real commercial value. This blog looks at why manufacturing has become such a focus for attackers, what a real incident actually costs and how a layered CyberGuard approach, already proven with one of our own manufacturing customers, keeps production running.
Why manufacturing is now the top ransomware target
Manufacturers recorded 1,466 ransomware incidents globally in 2025, up from 937 the year before and IBM X-Force found manufacturing saw more cyberattacks than any other industry that year. Supply chain attacks specifically nearly doubled, rising from 154 incidents in 2024 to 297 in 2025, as attackers increasingly target smaller suppliers and managed service providers to reach larger manufacturing organisations indirectly.
A few things make manufacturing particularly exposed:
- Operational technology (OT) and IT are increasingly connected, but OT systems are often older, harder to patch, and were never designed with modern cyber threats in mind.
- Downtime is uniquely expensive: a stopped production line doesn't just lose revenue, it can mean spoiled stock, missed delivery windows and contractual penalties.
- Supply chains create indirect routes in, particularly through smaller suppliers or software platforms with weaker defences.
- Many manufacturers run lean IT teams, making 24/7 monitoring difficult to resource internally.
What a cyber incident actually costs a manufacturer
The risk isn't theoretical. In July 2024, a global technology outage disrupted Windows systems worldwide, and Westbridge Foods, a Worcestershire poultry and prepared foods supplier, was hit hard. The outage took down the company's MRP system, stopping barcode scanning and labelling and disrupting inventory and order processing. Because Westbridge handles perishable goods, any extended delay carried a real risk of spoilage, not just lost productivity.
As Ben Yapp, Group IT Infrastructure Manager at Westbridge Foods, put it: “I’ve been at Westbridge for about ten years and am now responsible for about 250 users, and I’d say one thing that keeps me awake at night is making sure all our IT is set up and configured correctly to protect us from external threats.”
Wavenet's CyberGuard team, already acting as Westbridge's Security Operations Centre, responded within the hour, isolated which of its 38 Azure-hosted servers were affected, and found a workaround by midday, well before Microsoft's own fix landed. The team continued working through the following weekend to fully resolve the issue. That response time is the difference between a contained incident and a genuine crisis for a business handling perishable stock.
Where manufacturers are most exposed
- Converged OT/IT networks, where a breach on the office side can reach production systems if networks aren't properly segmented.
- Legacy control systems that can't always run modern endpoint protection.
- Third-party and supply chain access, including remote access granted to equipment vendors and logistics partners.
- Small IT teams stretched across day-to-day support and security monitoring, with little capacity left for proactive threat hunting.
Building layered protection for manufacturing environments
There's rarely a single fix. Westbridge's own protection stack, delivered through Wavenet's CyberGuard, illustrates what a properly layered approach looks like in practice:
| CyberGuard component | What it does | Why it matters for manufacturers |
| EDR (Endpoint Detection & Response) | Monitors and protects laptops, servers and connected devices | Catches malware and ransomware on the endpoints connected to production and office systems |
| MDR (Managed Detection & Response) | 24/7 expert-led monitoring, threat hunting and response | Closes the gap for manufacturers without a large in-house security team |
| Managed SOC | Continuous monitoring across endpoints, network and cloud | Gives round-the-clock visibility across multi-site manufacturing estates |
| SIEM | Centralised log collection and correlation | Connects signals across office IT and connected production systems |
| Penetration testing | Proactively tests defences before attackers do | Identifies weaknesses in legacy or converged OT/IT environments |
| Managed firewall | Consistent perimeter and segmentation control | Helps separate production networks from office IT to limit the spread of an incident |
| Cyber Essentials Plus | Independently verified baseline security controls | Increasingly expected by customers and supply chain partners |
| Backup and disaster recovery | Tested recovery of data and systems | Protects order processing, inventory and production data if the worst happens |
You can read more about each of these individually in our guides which are: What is MDR, the difference between MDR, SIEM and SOC, EDR vs XDR vs MDR, what a Managed SOC does, and what penetration testing involves. If Cyber Essentials Plus is on your radar, our guide on why it's worth getting certified explains what's involved.
Backup and disaster recovery deserve equal weight alongside prevention and detection. Our 10-step disaster recovery checklist and RTO vs RPO guide are useful starting points for manufacturers who haven't recently tested how quickly they could recover production data and systems. Our broader business continuity services and disaster recovery services bring this together with the cyber security side.
Our piece on why cyber resilience is no longer just about prevention sets out the wider thinking behind treating detection, response and recovery as one connected discipline rather than separate projects.
Proven across manufacturing, not just in theory
Westbridge isn't an isolated example. We've supported manufacturers across very different challenges: helping Forest Heath Fasteners move off ageing ISDN and PBX systems onto a resilient, scalable unified communications platform ahead of the PSTN switch-off, and working with Swizzels Matlow to modernise their telephony onto a true IP platform without disrupting production floor communications during the rollout. Cloud infrastructure, connectivity and cyber security all sit under the same roof, which matters when an incident like Westbridge's touches several of them at once.
You can explore more manufacturing and cross-sector stories on our case studies hub, and hear directly from customers on our customer feedback page.
Getting started: where to focus first
- Map where OT and IT networks connect, and check whether segmentation would actually contain an incident today.
- Confirm who is watching your systems outside office hours, and how quickly they could respond to something like the Westbridge outage.
- Review third party and supply chain access regularly, not just when a new vendor is onboarded.
- Test your backup and disaster recovery plan against a realistic production-down scenario, not just a file-restore test.
- Consider Cyber Essentials Plus certification if customers or supply chain partners are starting to ask for evidence of your security controls.
Cyber security for manufacturers in a nutshell
- Manufacturing is now the most targeted sector for ransomware worldwide, with incidents up 56% in 2025 and still rising.
- OT/IT convergence, legacy systems, supply chain access and lean IT teams all add to the exposure.
- A real incident can mean far more than downtime, including spoiled stock and missed deliveries, a situation Westbridge Foods were faced with.
- Layered protection, EDR, MDR, SOC monitoring, SIEM, penetration testing, managed firewalls, Cyber Essentials Plus and tested backup and DR, is what turns a potential crisis into a contained incident.
Ready to protect your production environment?
Our cyber security services bring MDR, Managed SOC, penetration testing and Cyber Essentials Plus together with cloud and disaster recovery support built for manufacturing environments.
Talk to us to find out where your current defences have gaps, or explore how we support the manufacturing sector more broadly, and browse further guidance on our resource centre.
Frequently asked questions
Why is manufacturing the most targeted sector for ransomware?
Production downtime is expensive and time-sensitive, operational technology is often harder to patch than standard office IT, and supply chains give attackers indirect routes into larger organisations through smaller suppliers. Together, these make manufacturers an attractive and often easier target.
What makes manufacturing environments harder to secure than typical office IT?
Many manufacturers run a mix of modern office IT and older operational technology that wasn't designed with cyber security in mind, and the two networks are often more connected than intended. This convergence can let an issue on one side reach the other if networks aren't properly segmented.
Can a manufacturer with a small IT team realistically run 24/7 security monitoring?
Not usually in-house, which is why many manufacturers use a managed SOC or MDR service instead. It gives round-the-clock monitoring and expert response without needing to build and staff a security team internally.
Does cyber security in manufacturing need to cover OT as well as IT?
Yes. Attackers don't respect the boundary between office IT and operational technology, and a breach that starts on one side can reach the other without proper network segmentation and monitoring across both.
How quickly can a managed SOC respond to an incident like a major outage?
Response times depend on the provider and the incident, but as Westbridge Foods experienced, a well-integrated managed SOC can begin triaging and isolating affected systems within the hour, and find practical workarounds well before an underlying issue is fully resolved.
