UK manufacturers urged to bolster resilience as cyber threats surge

Manufacturing firms have been urged to bolster resilience capabilities after new research shows nearly one-third (30%) have experienced a cyber incident in the last year.

A study from Make UK, a trade group representing the manufacturing and engineering industries, highlighted both the growing threats faced by organizations as well as the impact of cyber attacks.

Crucially, many manufacturers appear to be dangerously underprepared. The study noted that only around half of organizations have incident response plans in place, while almost one-third don’t have cyber insurance or are “unsure whether they are covered”.

Graeme Gordon, CEO of Converged Solutions Group, said the study findings should be a wake-up call for manufacturers.

“This survey highlights the volume of attacks UK manufacturers face and the damage these incidents often cause to their operations, particularly when they are not prepared,” he said.

Gordon added the findings also serve as a reminder in the wake of high-profile attacks such as the one on Jaguar Land Rover in September 2025 when the car manufacturer was forced to halt production for weeks after being hit by a devastating cyber attack.

As ITPro reported, the former head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) described the attack as the “single most financially damaging cyber event ever to hit the UK”.

Figures released by the Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC) last year placed the estimated financial impact on the UK economy at between £1.6 billion and £2.1 billion.

Given the impact of that attack, findings from the Make UK report on incident response capabilities are highly concerning, according to Gordon.

“It’s surprising, and concerning that so few manufacturers have incident response plans in place, especially given the benefits they offer in reducing downtime and financial losses,” he commented.

“With a regularly rehearsed incident response plan in place, manufacturers can recover from attacks in hours rather than months, often without pulling down production lines at all.”

Cyber risk ‘akin to an iceberg’

In the report, Make UK chief executive Stephen Phipson noted that cyber risk in manufacturing is "akin to an iceberg”.

Put simply, organizations often base resilience and response capabilities around the risks they see, while ignoring those lurking beneath the surface.

“It’s the vulnerabilities below the surface, in the systems, machinery, and supply chains that catch businesses out,” he said.

A key factor here is that digital systems are directly connected to, and therefore influence, physical production capabilities, according to Make UK. It’s here that the impact of a potential cyber attack or downtime can spiral out of control.

“The risk doesn’t stay in the digital world for too long. What starts as an IT issue very quickly becomes a production problem, a customer problem, and a financial problem very quickly,” Phipson commented.

Indeed, the study found that production downtime and increased costs ranked among the most common impacts when dealing with a cyber incident, cited by 46%.

Nearly one-third (31%) of manufacturers affected by supplier cyber attacks also reported delays to customer deliveries. Supply chain-related disruptions are becoming a recurring pain point for manufacturers, the study added.

“ A cyber incident at one supplier can quickly affect many others, causing delays, experienced by 31% [of] affected manufacturers, reduced capacity (31%) and shortages of components or materials (23%),” the report noted.

When Jaguar Land Rover production ground to a halt, this also had a downstream effect, with CMC’s analysis last year finding that more than 5,000 organizations were affected.

Small improvements

There are signs that manufacturers are waking up to the scale of the threats they face, according to Make UK.

The study noted that “most manufacturers are becoming more resilient,” with nearly three-quarters (70%) having avoided cyber incidents that affected operations in the last year.

Notably, the standards landscape can “feel too complex”, with the study noting that SMBs in particular face challenges on this front. This has a direct impact on cyber resilience and preparedness.

“Manufacturers need a simpler, proportionate route to cyber resilience,” the study warned.

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