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24/06/2026 10:59 pm
TL;DR: Manufacturers are using common infrastructure to unify people, systems, machines, and data in a digital factory, but IDC says 57% experienced a ransomware attack in the past year and 61% of security incidents caused disruptions lasting several days. Shared identity and access controls now shape both uptime and resilience, not just convenience.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Imprivata: Common infrastructure and digital factory security in manufacturing
By the numbers:
- 57%, e than half of manufacturers, 57%, experienced a ransomware attack in the past 12 months.
- 61% of manufacturing security incidents result in business disruptions lasting several days.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should manufacturers govern access in a digital factory?
A: Manufacturers should govern digital factory access as a shared identity problem across people, systems, machines, and facilities.
Q: Why do shared credentials create risk on the factory floor?
A: Shared credentials weaken accountability and make it harder to detect misuse, especially in shift-based or contractor-heavy environments.
Q: When should manufacturers prioritize passwordless access?
A: Manufacturers should prioritize passwordless access when passwords, badge sharing, or repeated logins are creating friction and reducing accountability.
Practitioner guidance
- Inventory shared access paths across IT, OT, and floor systems Document every place where one identity can reach production, warehouse, or administrative systems.
- Replace reused floor credentials with attributable authentication Move shift-based and contractor-heavy access away from shared badges and shared passwords.
- Tie access reviews to production and maintenance cycles Review who can reach production-adjacent systems at the same cadence as maintenance windows, shift changes, and contractor offboarding.
What's in the full article
Imprivata's full analysis covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- The article's breakdown of how common infrastructure is applied across manufacturing workflows, facilities, and connected systems.
- The practical framing behind digital identity, passwordless access, and floor-level authentication in shift-based environments.
- The article's supporting references to NIST guidance for industrial control systems and manufacturing security.
- The vendor's discussion of productivity, resilience, and security benefits in a digital factory model.
👉 Read Imprivata's analysis of common infrastructure and digital factory security →
Digital factory security: what common infrastructure changes?
Explore further
25/06/2026 7:50 am
Common infrastructure turns manufacturing identity into a shared blast-radius problem. Once people, systems, machines, and data sit on the same connective layer, identity failures no longer stay local to one workflow or site. That is why manufacturing security now depends on governance across the full access graph, not just endpoint or perimeter controls. Practitioners should treat every shared access path as a potential operational dependency.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 67% of organisations still rely heavily on static credentials despite the risks they pose to agentic AI deployments, according to the 2026 Infrastructure Identity Survey.
- 69% of security leaders agree identity management must fundamentally shift to address agentic AI systems.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What should security teams do after a manufacturing ransomware event?
A: Security teams should first identify which identities, shared systems, and OT connections enabled the spread, then remove any standing access that made recovery harder. They should also reassess whether the same access model is still in place across plants, contractors, and maintenance workflows, because repeat disruption usually reflects repeatable governance failure.
👉 Read our full editorial: Common infrastructure and digital factory security in manufacturing
