One thing I hear time and again when talking to manufacturers about digital transformation is the belief that cyber security is something for the IT team to worry about.

In reality, as businesses digitalise and automate their operations, cyber security becomes a business-wide concern.

A cyber incident can disrupt production, impact customers and damage reputation, making it a critical operational issue rather than just an IT challenge.

This is not a low-risk issue. The UK government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/26 estimated that 19 per cent of all businesses have been victims of at least one cyber crime in the past year.

Tanni Moyana is Made Smarter Course Leader, Digital Specialist at Sheffield Hallam University

placeholder image — Tanni Moyana is Made Smarter Course Leader, Digital Specialist at Sheffield Hallam University

Cyber risks exist even before advanced digitalisation, affecting communications, financial processes and day-to-day operations.

However, what I see time and time again is businesses not giving cyber security the concern it requires, and assuming strong passwords alone mitigates all this risk.

What businesses need is cyber resilience.

Cyber resilience’ is the ability for organisations to prepare for, respond to and recover from cyberattacks and security breaches.

My interpretation of cyber resilience is simple: focus first on the controls that reduce the most risk for the least effort. 100 per cent resilience is impossible in this digital age. If they want it bad enough, they will get it.

However, most attacks are opportunistic so you can protect yourself by making your business a less attractive target, and minimising risk of human mistakes that may “advertise” your vulnerabilities.

Good cyber resilience looks like certification. Certification can provide evidence that effective cyber security controls and processes are in place. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Businesses of any size will benefit from cyber resilience, from micro up to large organisations, although implementation will look different for each.

Anyone in your business can achieve it, however you want to start with the biggest risks. If you have externally managed IT infrastructure, then ensure they are certified as well as your internal teams. Never blindly take their word for it. Cyber resilience is all about trust, and trust is earned.

Overall, cyber resilience must be achieved by the whole organisation, not just delivered by the IT department. Leadership teams need to be involved in embedding cyber resilience into day-to-day operations and actively encouraging participation from all members of staff.

Everyone across the business should recognise that cyber security is not just about preventing attacks, but about ensuring the organisation can continue to operate, respond and recover when incidents occur.

Made Smarter Yorkshire is running fully funded Cyber Security Workshops to prepare manufacturing businesses, train them, and help them to achieve certification. A good digital transformation project should always be protected.

I will finish with my mantra for all digital transformation and Cyber Resilience projects: Assume the best, prepare for the worst.

Tanni Moyana is Made Smarter Course Leader and Digital Specialist at Sheffield Hallam University