Sophos, a global leader in innovating and delivering cybersecurity as a service, recently published a new sectoral survey report, “The State of Ransomware in Manufacturing and Production,” which found that the sector had the highest average ransom payment across all sectors: $2,036,189 versus $812,360, respectively.
In addition, 66 percent of manufacturing and production organizations surveyed reported an increase in the complexity of cyber-attacks, and 61 percent reported an increase in the volume of cyber-attacks when compared to the previous year’s survey. The increase in complexity and volume is also 7 percent and 4 percent higher than the cross-sector average, respectively.
“Manufacturing is an attractive sector to target for cybercriminals due to the privileged position it occupies in the supply chain. Outdated infrastructure and lack of visibility into the OT environment provide attackers with an easy way in and a launching pad for attacks inside a breached network. The convergence of IT and OT is increasing the attack surface and exacerbating an already complex threat environment,” said John Shier, senior security advisor, Sophos.
“While having reliable backups is an important part of recovery, today's ransomware threat requires a detailed response plan that includes human-led threat-hunting capabilities. Complex attacks require comprehensive protection, which, for many organizations, will include the addition of managed detection and response (MDR) teams who are trained to look for and neutralize active attackers.”
While manufacturing and production had the highest average ransom payment, the percentage of organizations that paid the ransom was among the lowest across sectors (33 percent versus 46 percent for the cross-sector average).
Some additional findings include:
· The manufacturing and production sector had the lowest attack rate, tied with financial services, with only 55 percent of organizations surveyed targeted by ransomware
· However, the percentage of manufacturing and production organizations hit by ransomware increased by 52 percent over the previous year’s report (up from 36 percent in the 2021 survey report)
· The sector also had the lowest encryption rate (57 percent versus 65 percent for the cross-sector average)
· Only 75 percent of those surveyed reported having cyber insurance—the lowest percentage across all sectors.