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There is perhaps no greater confluence of old and new school ideologies than the current ransomware threat landscape plaguing the industrial sector. On one hand – the motivations and avenues of attack have changed very little. Hackers are still leveraging weak log-in security or lagging parameter defenses to steal data and launch malware as they extort the enterprise.

However, that malware is now being released by highly specialized hacking groups that can launch and scale their attacks more quickly with AI tools, and with malware either sourced from another specialized provider, or optimized by, again, AI tools. The overall result has been another surge in ransomware attacks against the hacking community’s favorite target – manufacturing. 

Here to offer some insight on these and other trends related to ransomware in the industrial sector is Sean Nikkel. He serves as the Team Lead for Bitdefender’s Cyber Intelligence Fusion Cell. Listen as we discuss: 

• The spike in living-off-the-land ransomware attacks, and how old-school detection strategies may be fueling this surge.

• How a combination of ransomware group specialization and AI are helping bad actors scale their attacks in unprecedented ways.

• The need to prioritize vulnerabilities in new ways.

• How fewer ransomware payments could only be a temporary win for the sector.

• How to build a culture where cybersecurity is more than doom and gloom, and the best ways to celebrate the wins. 

A copy of the report Sean mentioned can be found here. https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/businessinsights/ransomware-attacks-targeting-us-organizations-2026 

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast. And if you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.

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To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.