The frequency of cyberattacks is rising sharply, and French industrial companies are finding themselves on the front line, particularly in the context of Industry 4.0 and increasing digitization. In 2023, ANSSI (Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d'information) revealed that 54 % of industrial companies in France had fallen victim to a cyber attack in the past year. Yet, despite this growing threat, 70 % of these companies have not yet implemented specific measures to protect their critical industrial systems (such as industrial control systems, or ICS, programmable logic controllers, or PLC, as well as SCADA and IIoT systems).

Ransomware attacks are on the increase, sometimes targeting major industrial players such as the Lacroix group, seriously disrupting their production. This wave of attacks highlights the vulnerability of industrial infrastructures to increasingly sophisticated and aggressive cyber threats. To counter this, France is investing massively in cybersecurity through programs such as the Plan France Relance, which devotes a billion euros to this cause. Companies such as Thales, Airbus Cybersecurity and Stormshield are at the forefront of developing targeted solutions to meet the specific needs of the industrial sector, offering technologies to enhance network and system security.
France's transposition of the European NIS2 directive, scheduled for 2024, will also impose much stricter cybersecurity standards for companies operating in critical sectors, including industry. This underscores the urgent need for French companies to invest in robust solutions to secure their systems and protect their businesses against growing threats. This legislative development, combined with the growing efforts of the private sector, marks an essential step towards strengthening the resilience of the industrial fabric in the face of tomorrow's cyberattacks.