What Manufacturing Companies Need to Know About DDoS Attacks
And How Sierra Experts Protects Your Business
Cyber threats can halt business operations in minutes, and for manufacturing companies, where interconnected systems and IoT devices are increasingly vital, the stakes are even higher. Among these threats, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are among the most disruptive. They target manufacturing with alarming frequency. Fortunately, at Sierra Experts, we’re committed to keeping your operations secure and resilient. Here’s what you need to know about DDoS attacks and how we can help safeguard your business.
What Is a DDoS Attack?
A DDoS attack floods a website, server, or network with excessive traffic from multiple sources, thereby blocking legitimate users from accessing services. For instance, a notable example is the 2016 Mirai botnet attack on Dyn, a major DNS provider, which overwhelmed servers with traffic from compromised IoT devices, disrupting access to sites like Twitter and Netflix for hours. Unlike data breaches that aim to steal information, DDoS attacks focus on disruption, making them especially damaging for manufacturers reliant on uptime for production, supply chain management, or customer interactions.
Types of DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks target different layers of your infrastructure, each with distinct methods:
- Volume-Based Attacks: These overwhelm your internet connection with massive data floods, consequently consuming all available bandwidth and blocking legitimate traffic.
- Protocol Attacks: By sending malformed connection requests, these exploit server resource weaknesses, ultimately causing crashes or becomes unresponsive even with moderate traffic.
- Application Layer Attacks: These target specific web functions, like login pages or shopping carts, using low traffic volumes to disable critical operations discreetly.
For manufacturers specifically, the impact is severe. In fact, in 2024, manufacturing saw a 257% surge in DDoS attacks. This was in North America alone. The sector accounted for 5% of all attacks and 21% of the largest occurring incidents (Zayo’s 2024 DDoS Insights Report).
Downtime can cost up to $260,000 per hour (Gartner, 2022), which represents a devastating hit for Pittsburgh-area plants, making any disruption a regional economic threat (Pittsburgh Regional Planning Commission, 2023).
The Real Cost of DDoS Attacks
Beyond immediate downtime, DDoS attacks erode customer trust. They also damage brand reputation and hurt search engine rankings due to prolonged inaccessibility.
For a manufacturer, a downed system can delay production schedules, disrupt supply chains, or stall customer orders, potentially costing long-term business relationships. Ultimately, the financial and reputational toll can be harder to recover from than a tough loss at Acrisure Stadium.
Prevention, Preparedness, and Sierra Experts
To address these challenges, at Sierra Experts, we prioritize your operational continuity with a multi-layered DDoS defense strategy. We deploy advanced firewalls and intrusion prevention systems to detect and block malicious traffic.
Features like rate limiting, geo-blocking, and deep packet inspection help filter out suspicious behavior before it reaches client systems:
- Advanced Traffic Monitoring: Our systems detect anomalies early, we use sophisticated algorithms to differentiate legitimate traffic from malicious requests, neutralizing threats at the network edge.
- Rapid Response: When attacks occur, immediately our team deploys mitigation strategies, such as traffic rerouting, rate limiting, or specialized filtering, ensuring uninterrupted access for legitimate users.
- Proactive Threat Detection: Our 24/7 monitoring identifies potential threats before they escalate. We keep your services online and secure, whether you’re managing a plant in Butler or a facility in Lawrenceville.
With over 15 years of experience serving Pittsburgh businesses, Sierra Experts understands the unique challenges faced by manufacturers in our region. As a result, our incident response plans allow your team to be prepared to act swiftly, minimizing damage and downtime.
We partner with clients to build resilience through regular security assessments, specifically identifying vulnerabilities in your network and applications.
Cyberattacks don’t follow business hours, and neither do we. Our 24/7 support team is always ready to act, keeping your operations as steady as the Steel City’s industrial legacy.
Don’t Wait. Act Now.
Don’t wait for a DDoS attack to expose your vulnerabilities. Instead, strengthen your defenses now with Sierra Experts.
To get started, contact us today at 412.722.0707 or email sales@sierraexperts.com to discuss your needs and build a customized strategy to keep your business safe no matter the threat.
