Bottom line: As manufacturing operations rapidly digitalize, coordination between IT and production remains unclear in many cases, while cyber incidents cause average production downtime of 15.3 hours and damages exceeding one million US dollars per incident.
60 percent of manufacturing companies aim for complete digitalization within two years, although currently only 9 percent have reached this level. As production facilities are networked via MES, SCADA and Historian systems, cyber-physical systems emerge with significant security risks.
According to a joint study by Kaspersky and VDC Strategy, 60 percent of surveyed manufacturing companies plan to fully digitalize by 2026. Currently, only 9 percent of companies have reached this level of digitalization. With increasing networking of production facilities via platforms such as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Historian systems, cyber-physical systems emerge that offer new attack surfaces.
The consequences of security incidents are significant for manufacturing operations: 60 percent of respondents expect damages starting at one million US dollars from a single cyberattack. Production downtime averages 15.3 hours. Most costs arise not from forensic investigations but from missed delivery commitments and contractually agreed compensation payments to customers.
A central problem lies in governance: At 59 percent of companies, the IT department establishes security policies but does not sufficiently take into account the specific requirements of production. 44 percent view managing numerous security tools as a challenge, 38 percent report difficulties deploying patches in OT environments. According to Andrey Strelkov, Head of Industrial Cybersecurity Product Line at Kaspersky, networking manufacturing environments requires fundamental rethinking: “With increasing networking of manufacturing environments, cybersecurity is no longer solely about implementing additional protective mechanisms, but ensuring the availability, resilience and integrity of production processes.”
Kaspersky recommends that manufacturing companies conduct regular security audits of OT systems, continuously assess and prioritize vulnerabilities, promptly update critical components, and deploy Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions. Furthermore, IT and OT teams should receive targeted training in OT security to clearly define responsibilities and shape security policies in close collaboration with production.
Source: www.it-daily.net · Published July 29, 2026
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