Ransomware doesn't just happen to banks and hospitals.
Three manufacturing plants in the Kitchener-Waterloo region were hit by ransomware attacks in 2025. None of them made the news. All of them paid to recover — or lost weeks of production trying not to.
Here's why manufacturers are a top target, and what it takes to protect your operation.
Ransomware groups are rational actors. They go where the pressure to pay is highest.
Manufacturing plants face extreme downtime pressure. When the floor is stopped, every hour costs money. Attackers know this. The faster you need to get back online, the more likely you are to pay.
A 50-person plant can lose $15,000–$25,000 per day of downtime. A ransomware demand of $40,000 starts to look like the cheaper option.
Most manufacturing ransomware doesn't come through a sophisticated exploit. It comes through:
Any of these creates an entry point. Once in, attackers move quietly for days or weeks before triggering the encryption.
If your backups are current, tested, and offsite, recovery takes 1–3 days. You lose some productivity, but you survive.
If your backups haven't been tested, or if the ransomware encrypted the backup location too, recovery becomes a negotiation.
Most firms that negotiate don't get all their data back. Payment guarantees a decryption key — it doesn't guarantee the key works, or that the attacker hasn't left a backdoor.
You don't need a security operations centre to protect a 50-person plant. Focus on the three highest-impact controls:
A managed IT partner implements all three and monitors them continuously.
Book a 30-minute call with NFD
We'll review your current backup and security posture and tell you straight where you stand.
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