India's factory boom comes with a growing cyber bill

Recent cyber incidents at two major Indian manufacturers have renewed concerns over the growing vulnerability of the country's factory floors as companies embrace automation, connected operations and artificial intelligence.

On June 23, Bajaj Auto and one of its subsidiaries reported a ransomware attack that disrupted parts of their IT systems. A day earlier, Tata Electronics disclosed a cyber breach. Both companies said they had activated incident response mechanisms and taken measures to contain the attacks.

Also Read: AI's biggest winners may be the engineers who don't write code


The incidents underscore how cybersecurity is increasingly becoming a boardroom issue rather than merely an IT concern, particularly as manufacturers digitise operations and deploy connected technologies across plants and supply chains.

Cybersecurity experts quotes by TOI said the manufacturing sector continues to be among the most heavily targeted industries globally.

According to Kaspersky's Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Threat Landscape report for the first quarter of 2026, manufacturing was the only major industry to record an increase in the share of attacked industrial control systems worldwide. Southeast Asia emerged as the region witnessing the highest level of such attacks.

"Threat actors are increasingly targeting internet-facing operational technology at remote sites," Vikash Yadav, head of enterprise for India at Kaspersky, told TOI. "As factories become more connected, they present a larger attack surface for ransomware groups, advanced persistent threat actors and supply-chain attackers exploiting smaller vendors."

Also Read: AI-enabled cyberattacks biggest near-term threat to financial system: RBI

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has also called on organisations to bolster cybersecurity measures, including vulnerability management, network segmentation, multi-factor authentication and continuous monitoring, as advances in AI make cyberattacks more sophisticated and difficult to detect.

Industry executives said many manufacturing facilities still operate with legacy systems that were never built with cybersecurity in mind.

"Companies need stronger separation between IT and operational technology networks while using AI at the edge so innovation does not come at the cost of security," said Debashish Roy, chief digital and technology officer at CEAT, adding that attacks on production systems can halt manufacturing, compromise worker safety and disrupt business continuity.

The risks extend beyond operational disruptions and financial losses. Although Tata Electronics and Bajaj Auto said their operations were not affected, Reuters reported that the breach at Tata Electronics' Hosur plant allegedly exposed confidential information related to Apple and Tesla, including component details and images of unreleased Apple products.

Experts warned that such incidents could have wider implications for India's ambitions to position itself as an alternative global manufacturing hub under the China-plus-one strategy.

Srinivas L, joint CEO of 63SATS Cybertech, speaking to TOI, said protecting intellectual property would be as important as expanding manufacturing capacity if India wants to attract global companies.

"If India acquires a reputation for IP leaks, it could erode the trust that underpins the China-plus-one opportunity," he said, adding that going ahead sector-specific cybersecurity guidelines and stronger incident reporting through CERT-In would improve resilience.

With inputs from TOI