India, July 28 -- Manufacturing cybersecurity risks are shifting even as the overall volume of attacks on factories falls. SonicWall's 2026 Manufacturing Protect Brief found that intrusion prevention (IPS) activity against manufacturing dropped 56.2% year-on-year in the first half of 2026. Yet 474 million events were still recorded, suggesting that attackers are becoming more selective about where they strike.
The bigger concern is the expanding attack surface. As factories connect operational technology (OT) with IT systems for remote monitoring, predictive maintenance and vendor access, more pathways are opening into production environments.
Manufacturing attack surface expansion is changing the threat
The manufacturing attack surfa...