AI-Powered Cyber Threats Rise: Attackers Target Manufacturing Sector

A new report highlights that AI-powered threats are rising as attackers target the manufacturing sector, exploiting generative AI platforms and trusted cloud services to launch sophisticated attacks. The study shows 94% of manufacturing organisations currently use genAI applications directly, with 97% using apps that leverage user data for model training.

Personal genAI account usage has fallen from 83% in December 2024 to 51% by September 2025, while organisation-approved solutions have risen from 15% to 42% over the same period. In terms of cloud platforms, ChatGPT leads with 87% adoption, followed by Google Gemini at 74% and Microsoft 365 Copilot at 58%, with Grok climbing to 32% by September.

Malware distribution now commonly travels via cloud services, with Microsoft OneDrive reported by 18% of manufacturing organisations, GitHub by 14%, and Google Drive by 11% for monthly malware downloads, and about 22 in 10,000 users encountering malicious content monthly through these platforms. Data policy violations remain a concern, with 41% of violations in individual applications involving regulated data, 32% involving intellectual property, and 19% tied to passwords or API keys.