Small to mid-sized manufacturers are targeted by a significant percentage of cyberattacks.
- According to a report by Verizon, 46% of all cyber breaches impact businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees, which includes small and mid-sized manufacturers.
- Insurance provider Hiscox’s 2022 Cyber Readiness Report found that attacks fell slightly for larger companies in 2021, but at “most other size groupings it has actually increased as the hackers have directed more of their attention to mid- and small-sized businesses.”
- Hiscox’s report, released last May, found that businesses with 10 to 49 employees saw a nearly fourfold rise in the average number of attacks.
Michael Sohn, FBI Supervisory Special Agent“SMBs do not report breaches very often, and they are not the ones making headlines on a national level. The large businesses continue to invest in their cybersecurity and enhance their cybersecurity posture,” FBI supervisory special agent Michael Sohn said at a CNBC event in December. “So what the cybercriminals are doing is they’re pivoting, they’re evolving and targeting the soft targets, which are the small and medium businesses.”
Additionally, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reports that small and medium-sized manufacturers are especially susceptible to cybercrime due to having fewer mitigation and incident response plans in place, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals. This vulnerability is further exacerbated by the fact that these manufacturers are more likely to pay ransoms to recover intellectual property and avoid downtime
