By Yusuf Ujjainwala, President, CMIT Solutions<\/p>\n
If you are like many manufacturing and industrial leaders I meet across Central Texas, you have invested heavily in efficiency. From Bastrop and Austin to San Marcos, New Braunfels, Seguin, and the surrounding communities, plants are adding connected equipment, cloud inventory systems, remote monitoring, automated quality control, and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Those investments can improve visibility and output. They also make manufacturing cybersecurity part of the production strategy. Every connected machine, sensor, software platform, and vendor connection creates a potential path into the business.<\/p>\n
A smart factory is not secure because it owns more security tools. It is secure when leaders know what is connected, control how systems communicate, limit remote access, monitor change, and can restore critical operations after an incident. That is the standard I encourage manufacturers to work toward.<\/p>\n
Five years ago, many cybersecurity conversations centered on office computers and email. Today, the discussion includes operational technology (OT): the programmable systems and devices that interact with physical processes. The NIST Guide to Operational Technology Security<\/a> includes industrial control systems, building automation, physical access controls, and environmental monitoring in that definition. NIST also notes that OT security must account for performance, reliability, and safety, not just data protection.<\/p>\n A modern production environment may connect systems that were purchased in different decades and maintained by different vendors:<\/p>\n That complexity is one reason manufacturing remains a visible target. IBM’s 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index<\/a> reported that manufacturing accounted for 27.7% of the incidents X-Force observed in 2025 and topped its target list for the fifth consecutive year. The practical takeaway is not to panic. It is to treat connected production technology as a business-critical asset.<\/p>\n You do not need to become an OT engineer to ask better questions. These five questions reveal whether security is keeping pace with automation and growth.<\/p>\n Start with an asset inventory that covers office IT, production OT, software, users, vendors, and important data flows. Record the owner, business purpose, location, model, software or firmware version, support status, and network connections for each critical asset. Unknown equipment cannot be monitored, patched, segmented, backed up, or restored with confidence.<\/p>\n One compromised employee computer should not provide a direct route to the production floor. Network segmentation creates controlled zones and restricts which systems can communicate. NIST’s OT security guidance emphasizes segmentation and separation because they can limit movement between business IT and critical production systems. The design should still support the data exchanges your operation needs, but only through documented and protected paths.<\/p>\n Equipment manufacturers and maintenance providers often need remote access. That convenience should be tightly governed. Use named accounts, strong authentication, least-privilege permissions, approved access windows, logging, and prompt removal when work is complete. CISA’s primary mitigations for operational technology<\/a> prioritize securing essential remote access and reducing internet exposure for OT assets.<\/p>\n Manufacturing systems cannot always follow the same update schedule as office laptops. A patch may require vendor approval, testing, a maintenance window, or a temporary compensating control. The goal is a documented process: know what is vulnerable, decide what can be updated safely, monitor what must wait, and record every approved change. Alerts should be tuned for the environment so unusual activity is visible without overwhelming the team.<\/p>\n Cybersecurity is not only about prevention. Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report<\/a> says ransomware was involved in 48% of the breaches in its data set. For a manufacturer, recovery planning should cover production configurations, recipes, controller logic, server images, business data, vendor dependencies, and the safe order for restarting systems.<\/p>\n The NIST OT Backup Quick Start Guide<\/a> recommends creating OT backups regularly, integrating them with change management, testing them, and reviewing them during recovery exercises. A backup is valuable only when the team knows it can restore the right system in the required time.<\/p>\n A common objection is, “We are too small to need enterprise-level cybersecurity.” I disagree. Smaller manufacturers may not need an enterprise-size department, but they still need enterprise-class disciplines where production, safety, customer commitments, and revenue are at risk.<\/p>\n The right plan does not begin by buying every available product. It begins with the systems that cannot afford to fail, the realistic threats to those systems, and the controls that reduce the most risk. Depending on the environment, that plan may combine:<\/p>\n For manufacturers without a full internal team, managed IT services<\/a> can provide structured monitoring, security, backup oversight, vendor coordination, and planning. CMIT’s broader IT support for manufacturing<\/a> is designed to connect factory needs with practical technology management. Our related guide to IT support for engineering and manufacturing companies<\/a> explains how that coverage can scale without requiring every IT role to be hired in-house.<\/p>\n At CMIT Solutions, my goal is not to sell the biggest technology package. It is to help you build the right technology strategy for where the business is today and where it needs to go next. That may include layered cybersecurity services<\/a>, stronger network controls, or data backup and recovery services<\/a> that support a tested recovery plan.<\/p>\n Manufacturers across Central Texas are adopting automation, connected equipment, cloud platforms, and AI because those tools can improve efficiency and competitiveness. Those investments deserve a security and recovery strategy built around the realities of the production floor.<\/p>\n\n
Five Manufacturing Cybersecurity Questions Every Leader Should Ask<\/h2>\n
Do We Know Every Device and Connection?<\/h3>\n
Are Our Business and Production Networks Properly Separated?<\/h3>\n
Is Vendor Remote Access Limited and Verifiable?<\/h3>\n
Can We Monitor and Patch Without Disrupting Production?<\/h3>\n
Could We Restore Production After a Cyber Incident?<\/h3>\n
Smart Manufacturing Requires a Practical IT Strategy<\/h2>\n
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Protect the Technology That Keeps Production Moving<\/h2>\n