Nearly a third of British manufacturers have experienced a cyber-incident in the past 12 months, according to a survey by MakeUK, a lobby group for the sector. The findings highlight growing hacking risks to companies, with attacks often leading to lost production time and increased costs, yet only half of manufacturers have a plan in place to respond to an attack.

The rise in attacks comes almost a year after JLR, Britain's largest automotive employer, was hit by a cyber-attack that forced production halts for weeks. The independent Cyber Monitoring Centre said that incident cost the UK economy at least £1.9bn, probably making it the most expensive cyber incident ever in Britain. The New York Times reported in June that Russian hackers were behind the JLR attack.

Jonathon Ellison, director of national resilience at the National Cyber Security Centre, said: "In today's landscape, no manufacturer can afford to treat cybersecurity as anything other than a business-critical priority." The UK government has said cybercrime costs the economy £14.7bn a year, with the rise of generative AI systems adding urgency to efforts to upgrade defences.