Manufacturing a Top Industry for Cybersecurity Attacks | Manufacturing News Desk
Manufacturing a Top Industry for Cybersecurity Attacks | Manufacturing News Desk
Publish Date: 2026-06-08 08:45:00
Source Domain: www.advancedmanufacturing.org
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.
Cybersecurity problems remain alive and well in the manufacturing sector, according to a report from Verizon Business.
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Cybersecurity invasions remain alive and well in the manufacturing sector, according to a study from Verizon Business.In the company’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), manufacturing was the second-most attacked business sector with 3,627 incidents. Three in four of those incidents (2,713) were stolen-data attacks.And manufacturing only has 183 fewer incidents than the most attacked industry, financial and insurance.The 19th report is based on studies of 22,000 confirmed data breaches in 145 countries that took place between November 2024 and October 2025. This is the largest number of breaches the company has ever examined in a single report, Verizon officials said, as cases continue to increase year over year.Across all sectors, exploitation of vulnerabilities has become the most common way for attackers to gain initial access to an organization, accounting for 31% of attacks. This is followed by phishing (16%), credential abuse (13%) and pretexting (6%).The report said the number of breaches in the manufacturing industry continues to grow, with the increase largely due to ransomware attacks at 61%. Stolen credentials followed at 41%, and vulnerability exploitation at 40%.The Verizon study found the top attack patterns for manufacturing—system intrusion, social engineering and basic web application attacks—accounted for 91% of the breaches.Other manufacturing industry findings include:Internal data was compromised in 81% of the breaches, followed by credentials at 26%, and personal identifiable information at 17%.When looking at the “threat actors”—the people behind the event, as Verizon defines them—for the sector, 95% of them were external, and 5% were internal. Eighty-seven percent of these actors were financially motivated, while 15% of them were motivated by espionage.Malware accounted for most of the growth in both breaches and system intrusion incidents at 75%. Next came hacking at 71% and social engineering at 16%.Artificial intelligence has become a key tool for cybercrimes, regardless of industry. Verizon Business found attackers are increasingly relying on generative AI (genAI) for choosing targets, conducting vulnerability research and developing effective malware and other tools. But company experts remain hopeful that security and risk management can help offset these attacks.“While the velocity of cyber threats—driven by AI and faster vulnerability exploitation—is increasing, the foundational principles of security and strong risk management remain the most effective defense,” Daniel Lawson, senior vice president of global solutions at Verizon Business, said in a statement. “The DBIR reinforces that these fundamentals still hold as organizations strive for resilience.”
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