By Industry · Manufacturing

GRC where the factory floor is now a target

Manufacturers run on operational technology that was never built to be secured, hold intellectual property that nation-states want, and increasingly must prove their cybersecurity to win defense and enterprise contracts. Nearly three-quarters were hit by a cyberattack in the past year.

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The landscape

Security on the plant floor and in the contract

Manufacturing security pulls in three directions. On the plant floor, OT and ICS systems, many of them decades old, are now ransomware and nation-state targets, and IEC 62443 defines how to secure them. In the supply chain, any manufacturer handling Controlled Unclassified Information for the Department of Defense must implement all 110 NIST 800-171 controls and, under CMMC, prove it to a third-party assessor. And enterprise customers increasingly demand ISO 27001 or SOC 2 before they buy.

NIST 800-171 CMMC 2.0 IEC 62443 ISO 27001 SOC 2 NIST CSF ITAR NIST 800-82
73%
of manufacturers experienced at least one cyberattack in the past year, even as most still struggle to meet the basic compliance requirements their contracts and customers now demand.

The intellectual property is the prize. State actors target manufacturing to steal designs and disrupt supply chains, which is why the Department of Defense is moving to a verify-then-trust model, and why the same control, say network segmentation, has to satisfy an OT standard, a defense mandate, and a customer's questionnaire all at once.

Why it is hard

IT, OT, and the supply chain, at once

A manufacturer has to secure corporate IT, protect control systems that cannot simply be patched or rebooted, and prove compliance up and down a supply chain, often to CMMC on a tight clock. Each has its own framework, and each asks about the same underlying controls in a different language.

Managed separately, that is duplicated evidence, an OT program disconnected from the compliance one, and a certification deadline that arrives faster than the paperwork.

How SimpleRisk fits

One control library, every obligation

SimpleRisk treats manufacturing GRC the way it should be treated: as one connected set of controls that protects the plant, satisfies the contract, and answers the customer, mapped once across IT and OT.

  • Map once, satisfy many. Through the Secure Controls Framework, one control maps across NIST 800-171, CMMC, IEC 62443, ISO 27001, and 250-plus frameworks, so you test once and satisfy many at the same time.
  • Bring OT and IT into one register. Track control-system and corporate risk together, instead of two programs that never quite meet.
  • Get CMMC-ready and stay ready. Map the 110 NIST 800-171 controls and keep the evidence assessment-ready, so certification is a review, not a rebuild.
  • Prove it on demand. Define tests, run audits, and hand a C3PAO, an auditor, or a customer exactly the evidence it expects.
Compliance in SimpleRisk → Risk Management → Secure Controls Framework →

Secure the floor and win the contract, from one platform

Start a free trial or book a demo, and see how SimpleRisk maps your controls across every framework a manufacturer has to meet.

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