Three in ten UK manufacturers have been hit by a cyber-attack on their own company or one in their supply chain in the past 12 months.
This is according to a new survey from Make UK, the British manufacturers lobby group, which found that 30% of manufacturers faced a cyber-attack, many of which leading to a loss in revenue and production, and many experiencing increased costs.
The report comes in the wake of the cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover, which was the most costly cyber-attack in UK history, stalling production for weeks and costing a whopping £1.9 billion across the UK economy.
Manufacturing cyber-attacks and interruptions can lead to ripples across the economy. Of firms that suffered a cyber-attack along their supply chain 31% said they faced delays in deliveries to customers, while 23% said they faced delays from their suppliers or shortages of materials.
Despite the commonality of cyber-attacks and the most costly attack hitting a manufacturer, the report found that only half of firms have a plan in place to deal with an attack.
Just over half (51%) have confirmed they have a formal cyber incident response plan, while onl 45% have assigned senior leadership specific remit for cybersecurity – meaning 49% and 55% respectively have not done these key cybersecurity tasks.
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In addition to these lacklustre protections, not even a quarter (23%) have dedicated CISO, and nearly a third of businesses have no cyber insurance or are unsure of their insured status.
Make UK has suggested that firms formalise their incident response with regular stress tests, implement regular training, improve third-party supplier assurances, and audit their insurance policies to improve their overall cyber posture.





