Modern manufacturing now runs on connections. New digital tools and technologies are linking production environments with data, remote access, and enterprise systems, helping plants work faster and more efficiently. The business value is clear: 92% of surveyed manufacturers say smart manufacturing will be the main driver of competitiveness over the next three years.¹
However, the same connectivity that helps plants become more efficient also changes how cyber risk moves. In a connected environment, incidents do not always stay within one system, site, or function. They can move across IT, OT, suppliers, and operational processes, increasing the potential impact on physical operations.
Manufacturing has been the world’s No. 1 industry targeted by cyberattacks for five years in a row.³
Manufacturing leaders recognize the risk. On average, they dedicate nearly 16% of their IT budgets to cybersecurity.² But investment alone does not make these environments easier to understand or protect. The bigger challenge is knowing where risk exists, which systems it could affect, and how it could move through connected operations.
That requires a clearer view of the barriers that make cyber risk harder to see, prioritize, and manage.
Four Barriers Make Risk Harder to Understand
The plant floor presents challenges distinct from those in traditional IT environments. Cybersecurity must work around production targets, safety, quality, and operational continuity. These demands can make it difficult to apply consistent security practices without disrupting operations. Four recurring barriers stand in the way:
- Competency gaps make it harder to connect cybersecurity findings with plant-floor realities, especially when risk needs to be understood in the context of production processes.
- Capability limitations mean teams may know what needs attention but lack the tools, processes, or response plans to assess and act consistently.
- Capacity constraints force cybersecurity to compete with maintenance windows, production targets, safety requirements, and daily operational demands, making prioritization essential.
- Complexity grows as more connected devices, suppliers, systems, sites, and data flows create interdependencies that are harder to track and manage.
Together, these barriers show why risk in connected manufacturing environments can be difficult to interpret and control. They also point to a common need: a more complete risk picture.
A Clearer View Starts With Context
Without reliable visibility across IT, OT, and IoT environments, manufacturers can struggle to understand where risks exist and how they could affect operations.
A vulnerable device may appear isolated until teams see what it connects to. An externally accessible system may seem low-priority until its relationship to production processes, remote access pathways, or third-party services becomes clear. Operational visibility is more than an inventory of connected assets. It is the ability to understand how those assets function in context.
Only 14% of manufacturing organisations report full visibility of their OT systems.⁴
Manufacturers need to know which connections are necessary, which exposures create risk, and which dependencies could allow an incident to move from a digital system into a physical process. Without that context, security teams can struggle to prioritize action, and operations teams may lack confidence in proposed changes.
From Fragmented Protection to Informed Action
Greater visibility gives manufacturers a stronger basis for making decisions across limited resources, complex environments, and competing operational priorities.
For teams facing competency gaps, visibility can make complex environments easier to interpret by giving IT, security, and operations teams a shared view of assets, vulnerabilities, traffic, users, and externally accessible systems.
For organizations with limited capabilities, it helps turn awareness into operational control by supporting more targeted decisions about segmentation, mitigation, monitoring, and response.
Visibility also helps address capacity and complexity. Stretched teams need to know where to focus first. A clearer view of assets, connections, and exposures helps them prioritize the work that matters most and avoid spending limited time on lower-risk activity. As manufacturing environments become more connected, visibility also reveals hidden dependencies across IT, OT, IoT, suppliers, and sites.
In this way, operational visibility turns awareness into informed action. It gives manufacturers the context needed to strengthen protection and build resilience over time.
Closing the Gap
Manufacturers cannot manage connected cyber risk with a fragmented view of their environment. As IT, OT, and IoT systems become more interdependent, progress depends on understanding what is connected, where exposure exists, and how risk could affect operations.
A clearer view of assets, connections, exposures, and dependencies helps manufacturers focus action, strengthen protection, and build resilience across the modern plant floor.
1. Deloitte Survey Reveals Smart Manufacturing Is Driving Advantage But Needs Focused Investment and Implementation
2. Deloitte - 2025 Smart Manufacturing and Operations Survey: Navigating challenges to implementation
3. IBM - Why manufacturing companies are most vulnerable to hacking
4. Fortinet - 2026 State of Operational Technology and Cybersecurity Report
