Manufacturing is now the single most attacked industry in the world. For the fifth year in a row, hackers hit factories and plants harder than banks, hospitals, or any other sector out there.
Manufacturing accounted for 27.7% of all cybersecurity incidents in 2025, according to IBM’s 2026 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index.
If you run a plant in Rhode Island, that number should stop you in your tracks. Your shop floor probably runs all day and all night, but does anyone watch your network the same way? 24/7 monitoring is one piece of a complete IT setup, and it’s the piece most small and mid-size manufacturers are missing without realizing it.
Why Is Manufacturing Targeted So Often for Cyberattacks?
Manufacturers get hit hardest because shutting down a plant hurts fast and hurts big. Hackers know a factory can’t afford to sit idle, so they bet you’ll pay to get back up and running rather than lose days of production. Add in older equipment, connected machines, and third-party vendors with access to your systems, and you’ve got a lot of doors for someone to walk through.
Your plant in Providence, or anywhere else in Rhode Island, doesn’t need to be a Fortune 500 company to become a target. Ransomware groups don’t check company size before they attack. They check for weak spots, and after-hours blind spots are some of the easiest ones to find. In fact, they prefer smaller manufacturers due to their lack of cybersecurity measures. That’s an easy payday for them.
What Happens If You Don’t Have 24/7 Monitoring?
Without around-the-clock monitoring, your IT setup has a hole in it, and that hole is exactly the size of your nights, weekends, and holidays. Lots of manufacturers have an IT person checking around, but they’re not there all the time. Is their setup working 24/? How fast do you know if there’s an outage? Or if there’s a cybersecurity incident?
Organizations take an average of 247 days to identify and contain a data breach, according to IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report.
That’s over eight months of a hacker sitting inside your systems, reading files, moving between machines, and setting up for the moment they finally strike. Without monitoring to catch that activity early, a threat that starts on a Friday night can sit undiscovered for months, not hours. By the time anyone notices, the hacker has had all the time in the world to do damage, and your production line pays the price along with your bottom line.
Imagine it’s a Friday night. Your office is empty and your machines are running on autopilot. A hacker gets in through an old vendor connection nobody remembers is still open. With no one watching, that hacker has the whole weekend to explore, and by Monday, they may already control more than anyone realizes.
What Should You Ask Your IT Partner to Confirm They Have This Covered?
Ask your IT provider directly how they’re ensure your plant floor stays protected, even during off hours. A lot of manufacturers assume they’re covered simply because they pay for IT support, without ever confirming if they will hear about an incident after hours.
Here’s what to ask before you assume you’re covered:
- Does monitoring cover nights, weekends, and holidays, or only the business day?
- Does it cover your production equipment and operational technology, or just office computers and laptops?
- When an alert fires at 3 a.m., is a real person notified, or does it just sit in an inbox until morning?
- How fast does someone actually respond once a threat is flagged?
- What happens on a second or third shift, when your plant is running but your office is empty?
A good IT partner should be able to answer all five of these without hesitation. If any answer is vague, or the honest answer is “we’ll look into it in the morning,” that’s a gap worth closing now, not after something happens.
How Can You Tell If Your Current Setup Has a Gap?
Ask yourself who would find out first if something went wrong overnight. If the honest answer is “whoever gets to the office first Monday morning,” you likely don’t have real 24/7 coverage, even if you’re paying for IT support.
A lot of plants in Rhode Island run a second or third shift, which means production keeps going long after the office empties out. If your machines run at midnight, your monitoring should too. Coverage that matches your business hours but not your production schedule leaves exactly the gap attackers are counting on.
24/7 monitoring isn’t meant to replace the IT support you already have. It’s the piece that fills in the hours your current setup doesn’t cover, working alongside your internal IT person or local vendor to catch what happens after everyone’s gone home. The cost of adding it is almost always smaller than manufacturers expect, especially once you weigh it against the cost of even a single day of downtime.
Key Takeaways
- Manufacturing has been the most targeted industry for cyberattacks for five years running, according to IBM.
- Without 24/7 monitoring, your IT protection likely only covers business hours, leaving nights, weekends, and holidays open.
- It takes an average of 247 days to catch a breach without strong detection in place, giving attackers months of unnoticed access.
- Ask your IT partner directly whether monitoring covers your production equipment and off-hours shifts, not just your office computers during the day.
Want to know if your current setup actually has 24/7 coverage? Schedule a free System Audit with Attain Technology and we’ll show you exactly where your after-hours blind spots are, and what it takes to close them.
Why Choose Attain Technology
At Attain Technology, we’ve supported New England’s manufacturing leaders for nearly 20 years. Our 24/7 monitoring covers your office systems and your shop floor, backed by a real team that responds when something looks wrong, day or night. If you’re ready for IT that watches your plant as closely as you do, we’d love to talk.
Schedule a Discovery Call With Us Today to See if You’re Covered
FAQ
Why is manufacturing the most targeted industry for cyberattacks?
Manufacturing is targeted so often because downtime hurts fast, giving hackers leverage to demand payment. Older equipment, connected machines, and outside vendor access also create more entry points. Attackers know plants can’t afford to sit idle, which makes manufacturers an attractive target.
What should I ask my IT provider to confirm they offer 24/7 monitoring?
Ask if monitoring covers nights, weekends, and holidays, not just business hours, and whether it includes your production equipment, not just office computers. Also ask how fast a real person responds to an overnight alert. Vague answers usually mean a gap in your coverage.
Can 24/7 monitoring stop a ransomware attack before it spreads?
Yes, in many cases. Monitoring tools flag unusual behavior, like strange logins or fast file changes, early in an attack. That early warning lets a response team step in before ransomware finishes locking up your files, which limits the damage and speeds up recovery.
Does 24/7 monitoring replace the IT support I already have?
No. 24/7 monitoring works alongside your current IT support, filling in the hours your internal team or local vendor doesn’t cover. It catches threats that happen after everyone goes home, so your protection matches your production schedule instead of just your office hours.
