When the Line Stops, Every Minute Has a Price. So Does Every Breach.
Manufacturing has led every ransomware targeting report for four consecutive years. The reason is structural: IT and OT networks converge, but security programs do not. Compunnel secures both sides of the IT/OT boundary with visibility and controls built for operational environments where uptime is the business model.
Securing production environments, OT networks, and industrial supply chains • 23% of the Fortune 500 work with Compunnel
IT Security Stops at the Factory Gate. Ours Does Not.
Manufacturing environments run on OT systems designed for reliability and continuous uptime, not cybersecurity. PLCs, SCADA systems, and DCS controllers were built to run for decades. Most cannot be patched. None were designed to withstand a targeted cyberattack.
As IT and OT networks converge, the attack surface of the factory floor expands into every connected enterprise system. An attacker who compromises an email account or a VPN credential can reach a production control system in hours. Most manufacturers have no way to detect that movement before it reaches operational equipment.
Compunnel secures both sides of that boundary, with visibility and controls built for operational environments where taking a system offline is not an option and where ‘best practice’ must be reconciled with production reality.
“Operational security built around the reality that production cannot stop for a patch window.”
Compunnel Manufacturing Security Practice
The Attack Does Not Start on the Factory Floor. It Ends There.
Attacks on manufacturing environments follow a consistent pattern: they begin in enterprise IT and move into OT through convergence points that most organizations have not secured. These are the gaps Compunnel finds most consistently.
Enterprise IT and production OT networks share infrastructure at most manufacturers. A phishing email in corporate IT gives an attacker a path to production control systems. Flat architectures with no enforced segmentation mean a single breach can reach everything.
PLCs, SCADA systems, and HMIs are programmed from engineering workstations running operating system versions that have not seen a security patch in years. These systems cannot be taken offline for maintenance and cannot be updated without production impact.
OEM vendors, systems integrators, and maintenance contractors need remote access to production equipment. Most of that access is permanent, ungoverned, and unmonitored. A single compromised vendor credential provides direct access to equipment on your production line.
Sensors, actuators, and condition monitoring devices operate across the plant floor with default credentials and no firmware governance. They are invisible to IT security tools and unaddressed by OT security programs that have not been updated to account for connected industrial equipment.
Most manufacturers have an IT incident response plan. Very few have one built for OT environments, where isolating a compromised system may halt a production line and where recovery requires coordinated action across IT security, OT engineers, and plant operations.
ERP systems, MES platforms, and supply chain management software connect enterprise data to production workflows. Each integration is an access path. When a supply chain software provider is compromised, every manufacturer using it becomes a potential target.
Built for Production Environments. Operated by Practitioners Who Know OT.
Compunnel designs and operates security programs across both IT and OT environments. We work with your existing industrial systems, understand operational constraints, and do not implement controls that interrupt production.
Complete asset inventory and network visibility across OT and IT environments, including PLCs, HMIs, sensors, and legacy systems that standard IT tools cannot discover. Every asset, every connection, every communication path — mapped and governed.
Compunnel designs and implements network segmentation between IT and OT environments, isolates critical production systems, and enforces the boundaries that prevent an IT breach from becoming a plant shutdown. Designed around operational constraints, not IT best practice templates.
IT incident response procedures do not apply in an OT environment. Compunnel builds OT-specific response plans, trains operational teams, and provides 24/7 monitoring with response capabilities designed around production continuity, not just data protection.
Manufacturers Who Kept the Line Running Through a Cyber Incident.
We had a ransomware incident that hit our corporate network. Compunnel had the segmentation in place from our engagement the previous quarter. The production line never stopped. The board could not believe it.
Compunnel discovered 47 active remote access credentials in our OT environment. We knew about maybe 20 of them. The other 27 belonged to vendors we had not worked with in over two years. That audit alone justified the entire engagement.
We needed IEC 62443 alignment for a major customer contract. Compunnel delivered the assessment, gap remediation, and documentation in eight weeks. We won the contract. Our competitors could not demonstrate the same program maturity.
Full OT asset inventory delivered across 4 production facilities. The foundation every manufacturing security program must start from.
For Compunnel-monitored manufacturing clients during security incidents. Containment without production impact.
Mean time to contain critical incidents across manufacturing client environments.
What We See in Manufacturing Environments. What Your Operations Team Needs to Know.
Ransomware groups targeting production control systems. Supply chain software compromise up 218%. What Compunnel’s SOC is tracking across manufacturing client environments this quarter.
Download the ReportHow Compunnel designs network segmentation for manufacturing environments where production cannot stop for a patch window. A practical guide for OT security leads and plant operations teams.
Get the GuideNo asset inventory. Flat IT/OT network. 47 active vendor credentials. How Compunnel delivered complete OT visibility and segmentation across a Tier-1 automotive supplier in three weeks.
Read the Case StudyYou Know Exactly What One Hour of Downtime Costs.
Protect Against the Incident That Would Cause It.
Speak with a Compunnel manufacturing security advisor. We will assess your IT/OT boundary, inventory your OT environment, and build a security program that protects production operations without compromising the operational constraints that keep your plant running.