The numbers do not lie. Between January and September 2025, there were 4,701 confirmed ransomware incidents around the world. Manufacturing alone saw a 61 percent jump in attacks compared to the previous year. If you are responsible for production, supply chain continuity, or operational uptime, these figures are not just industry noise. They are a warning that the threat has arrived at your doorstep.
Attackers now target the places where a single disruption creates maximum pressure. When a production line stops, the cost per hour often exceeds the ransom itself. Cybercriminals know this. They also know many factories still run older controllers next to modern business systems, all wired into vendors who hold broad access. One weak link can open the path into every system connected downstream.
Take two incidents from 2025. Jaguar Land Rover had to pause assembly operations after an incident that struck core factory systems and dealer functions. Bridgestone faced its own set of interruptions that required quick isolation and constant updates with partners. These were not small technical issues. They forced operational delays, financial hits, and tough explanations at the executive level. When factories suffer, the ripple spreads from suppliers to customers and out into the market.
Why manufacturers attract attackers is not a mystery. Production targets make downtime feel like the enemy, so patch cycles are often delayed. Some industrial devices cannot be updated without interrupting the line, which means old vulnerabilities stay alive for years. At the same time, modern business systems, partner tools, and cloud services all link together. Attackers look for the nearest open door, and the mix of pressure, old hardware, and shared credentials gives them more doors than most executives realize.
Your supply chain has a pattern of weak spots. Vendor access is often broader than necessary. Third-party software and update processes can become silent infection routes when a supplier is compromised. Many industrial devices have long patch gaps. Service accounts and shared passwords can spread trust across systems in ways no one fully tracks. None of this is rare. Attackers rely on these patterns because they find them over and over again in real environments.
Traditional defenses do not solve this problem. Firewalls and signature-based antivirus stop basic threats, but cybercriminals rarely depend on basic tactics anymore. They exploit stolen credentials or compromised vendor integrations that look legitimate to your perimeter tools. Backups help only when they are truly immutable, and the restoration process is both fast and frequently tested. The biggest danger is slow detection. The longer an attacker roams inside the network, the more damage they cause and the longer the recovery time becomes.
Here are three practical steps you can focus on right now, especially when discussing priorities with your board or leadership team:
• Enforce multi-factor authentication for all vendor and service accounts and remove unused admin rights.
• Ensure your backups are immutable and rehearse restoration of critical systems on a routine schedule.
• Use short-lived credentials for suppliers and review all persistent tokens to reduce silent access paths.
Identity controls and quicker detection are key. A compromised vendor account should not feel like a catastrophic event. It should be something you can isolate within minutes while systems stay running. That level of control requires both clear rules and intelligent tools that highlight which vendors create the most risk, so your team can focus attention where it truly matters.
There is a growing class of solutions that score vendor risk in real time. These tools observe signals from each supplier and calculate a dynamic risk profile. When unusual behavior appears, the system flags it immediately. For manufacturers with long supplier lists and limited security staff, this cuts through the noise. Risk scores help teams concentrate on the vendors that pose the greatest danger instead of spreading their attention thin across every partner.
Boards respond well to numbers that tell a simple story. You can present the count of high-risk suppliers in your top-tier group. You can show your average time to isolate a compromised vendor and set a goal to reduce it by half. You can report how many vendors have multi-factor authentication enabled and how long a full restoration from backups really takes. When you tie each figure to hours of avoided downtime and the financial impact of keeping production running, the budget conversation becomes easier.
Cybercriminal groups have become faster and more organized. Some now specialize in attacking supply chains because they know the impact multiplies quickly. While that raises the stakes, it also means your improvements can be more meaningful than ever. Even small upgrades in vendor access controls, backup quality, and risk monitoring can prevent a major production halt. Start with the simpler tasks that deliver early wins, then work toward stronger segmentation and better contract requirements for security standards with your suppliers.
There is still time to strengthen your defenses, but the window is not large. Vendor risk is no longer an isolated IT concern. It touches procurement, production, logistics, and legal obligations. Protecting the companies you rely on is the same as protecting your own output and your market position.
Think of this challenge as a set of clear choices you can make this quarter rather than a never-ending list. Choose steps that reduce the paths attackers can use to move from a vendor into your industrial systems. Focus on actions that protect credentials and reduce recovery time. Making supplier credentials short-lived is inexpensive and often closes major gaps. Regular restoration testing exposes hidden problems before an incident forces them into the open. Using risk scores guides your attention to the small number of suppliers that realistically create the largest exposure.
Start with three measurable moves this month. Enforce vendor multi-factor authentication, confirm that your backups are both immutable and restorable, and begin a pilot of continuous vendor monitoring so your team can focus on the suppliers that pose the highest risk.
If you want support in shaping this path, reach out to iRM through their contact us page and take the first step toward securing your supply chain with clarity and confidence.
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