CHENNAI: Cyberattacks on two major Indian manufacturing facilities recently have highlighted growing cyber risks facing India’s factory floors once again.Bajaj Auto and one of its subsidiaries reported a ransomware attack that affected parts of their IT systems on June 23, while Tata Electronics disclosed a cyber breach a day earlier. Both companies said they activated incident response protocols and took steps to contain the incidents.The back-to-back attacks underline how cyber threats are becoming a business risk rather than just an IT problem, as manufacturers embrace automation, connected factories and AI-driven operations. Vikash Yadav, head of enterprise for India at Kaspersky, said manufacturing remains one of the most targeted sectors.According to Kaspersky’s latest Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Threat Landscape report for the first quarter of 2026, manufacturing was the only major industry where the share of attacked industrial control systems increased globally, with Southeast Asia recording the highest level of such attacks.“Threat actors are increasingly targeting internet-facing operational technology at remote sites,” Yadav said. “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.”The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has also urged organisations to strengthen vulnerability management, network segmentation, multi-factor authentication and continuous monitoring as AI makes cyberattacks more sophisticated.Debashish Roy, chief digital and technology officer at CEAT, said many shop floors still rely on legacy equipment that were never designed 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,” he said, adding that attacks on production systems can halt manufacturing, compromise worker safety and disrupt business continuity.The implications go beyond production losses. While Tata Electronics and Bajaj Auto said operations remained unaffected, Reuters reported that the breach at Tata Electronics’ Hosur facility allegedly exposed confidential Apple and Tesla information, including component details and images of unreleased Apple products.Srinivas L, joint CEO of 63SATS Cybertech, said India’s ambitions under the China-plus-one strategy depend as much on protecting intellectual property as on expanding manufacturing capacity. “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.
