Why Ransomware Is Hitting Mid-Sized Manufacturers Harder Than Ever

If you run a mid-sized manufacturing business, the latest cybersecurity data is a wake-up call. Ransomware attacks, where hackers lock up your data or threaten to leak it unless you pay, have surged in recent years, and companies with limited security resources are bearing the brunt of it.

According to a recent industry analysis, ransomware incidents jumped roughly 45 % in 2025 versus 2024, with the last few months of the year showing especially sharp increases. December alone set a two-year record for incidents reported on dark web forums, where stolen data and ransom demands are traded and advertised.

Mid-sized manufacturers, those with fewer than about 200 employees or around $25 million in revenue, are especially attractive targets. Hackers view these businesses as somewhere between “easy prey” and “rich enough to pay.” They typically have “just enough revenue to make ransoms worth pursuing, but not enough budget for robust cybersecurity teams,” as one threat analyst put it.

What’s Behind the Rise?

Several broader trends help explain the uptick:

• More attackers, more activity. Analysts tracked roughly 134 active ransomware groups in 2025, up about 30 % from the year before. New entrants often use simpler tools but make up for it with volume and aggressive tactics.
• End-of-year gaps. Reduced staffing and holiday slowdowns gave criminals opportunities to strike networks with weaker monitoring.
• Outdated tech and limited defenses. Manufacturing systems often run older software or connect legacy machines to networks without proper segmentation, exactly the kinds of gaps hackers exploit. A Sophos report finds that exploited system vulnerabilities are the leading cause of ransomware incidents in manufacturing, contributing to about 32 % of attacks.

It’s not just quantity that’s rising. The type of attack is changing, too. While traditional ransomware focuses on encrypting files, many groups now combine encryption with data theft and extortion, threatening to publish sensitive information if victims don’t pay. That tactic was linked to hundreds of breaches in various sectors, including manufacturing, according to U.S. cybersecurity officials.

The Broader Picture

The manufacturing industry’s ransomware woes don’t come out of nowhere. In recent years, it’s consistently been among the most targeted sectors:

• In 2023, Statista reported that manufacturing suffered 638 ransomware attacks, making it the busiest targeted industry that year.
• A 2025 study found manufacturing had the steepest growth in ransomware attacks among critical industries, climbing more than 60 % compared to the previous period.
• Other research shows mid-sized and small businesses, not just in manufacturing but across sectors, account for about 88 % of successful ransomware breaches, largely because they lack robust defenses.

These attacks hit operations as much as IT systems. Even temporary shutdowns can delay production lines, disrupt supply chains, and erode customer trust. A high-profile 2025 cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover and its suppliers, for example, reportedly cost the UK economy upward of $2.5 billion in lost output and ripple effects largely due to interrupted manufacturing activity.

What Manufacturers Can Do Now

Experts consistently urge a few concrete steps:

• Patch and update systems regularly. Most attacks start with unpatched software.
• Multi-factor authentication and strong passwords. These can stop credential-theft attacks that lead to ransomware deployment.
• Network segmentation and zero-trust policies. These limits can prevent a single compromised machine from spreading malware throughout the organization.
• Backups and recovery plans. With reliable backups, the leverage ransomware criminals have is dramatically reduced. Independent reports show that even as ransomware grows, organizations that regularly back up data recover faster and reduce downtime.

“You have to assume that sooner or later, someone will try to get in,” says a cybersecurity leader working with industrial clients. “The question isn’t if you’ll be attacked, it’s how prepared you are when it happens.”