In most instances, holidays mean family time, rest, and a well-earned break.

To manufacturers, the holidays mean something else entirely:
A dangerous window where cybercriminals strike, equipment fails without warning, and downtime costs skyrocket-because fewer people are watching.

If you’re running a manufacturing company, you already understand that:
there is no such thing as “just a weekend.”

Just a few hours of downtime can bring production to a standstill, delay orders, damage customer trust, and cost tens of thousands of dollars.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner and the wider holiday season not far behind, now is the time to lock down your plant’s defenses and make sure your operations stay secure even when your team is off the clock.

This guide will help you prepare.

Why the Holidays Are High-Risk for Manufacturing

1. Attackers Know Your Plant Is Short-Staffed
Long weekends are, of course, the prime time for ransomware and attempts at network intrusion. That is because there are fewer engineers and IT personnel around to detect the activities of an attacker.

2. Production Lines Stay Active — Even If Your Team Isn’t
Manufacturing doesn’t really “pause.” Machines run. Sensors run. MES, ERP, and PLCs stay online – creating more points of failure if something goes wrong.

3. Old or Unpatched Systems Become Open Doors
Legacy equipment is common in manufacturing.
During holidays, these systems often fail without being immediately detected.

4. Missed Alerts Can Snowball Into Outages
Without real-time monitoring, an ignored alert can turn into a full production outage.

The Holiday Manufacturing Readiness Checklist

Below is a simple and high-impact checklist plant leaders can use to protect their facility before Thanksgiving.

1. Backup and Recovery Systems Validation
Make certain that every critical system — MES, ERP, CAD, SCADA, and controllers has recent, verified backups.

✔ Confirm backups are running
✔ Do a fast test restore
✔ Document recovery guidelines

If your backups fail during a holiday outage, it becomes much harder to recover.

2. Patch Critical Systems Before the Break
Attackers exploit unpatched software and firmware.

✔ Patch OT devices where possible
✔ Update security appliances
✔ Apply priority software updates
✔ Restart systems, if required for patch activation

3. Ensure that 24/7 monitoring is enabled
Monitoring will need to be continued even if the staff is away.

✔ Watch for spikes in network traffic
✔ Flag unusual login attempts
✔ Monitor the OT and IT environments
✔ Ensure after-hours alerts route to the correct people

Holidays offer the perfect cover for threat actors-don’t give them the opportunity.

4. Lock Down User Access
Unauthorized logins tend to increase during holiday seasons.

✔ Removing access to temporary workers
✔ Disable unused accounts
✔ Enforce MFA for all remote access
✔ Review admin privileges

5. Failover Testing and Redundancy
You need immediate alternatives if your main system fails at Thanksgiving.

✔ Verify generator backups
✔ Ensure redundant servers are synchronized
✔ Test plant-floor failover processes

6. Prepare Your On-Call Escalation Plan
If something breaks, someone must be responsible.
✔ Assign an on-call internal contact
✔ Document escalation guidelines
✔ Make sure vendors are contactable
✔ Share the emergency contact information

7. Remind Staff About Holiday Phishing Attacks
Employees are more distracted during holiday seasons.
Warn them about:
• Fraudulent shipment updates
• “Black Friday deal” phishing
• Subject: Payroll changes
• Fake supplier invoices
Holiday phishing attacks are among the most common – and expensive.

What a Holiday Incident Actually Costs Manufacturers

Most manufacturing leaders underestimate holiday downtime.
Downtime can cost as much as $10,000 to $50,000 per hour in manufacturing, depending on:

• Production line complexity
• Order backlog
• Labor cost
• Idle machines
• Late penalties from clients

Missing one alert on Thanksgiving can cascade into:

❌ Lost production
❌ Missed delivery deadlines
❌ Rush shipping fees
❌ Overtime costs
❌ Damage to reputation at distributors and buyers

How Manufacturers Can Stay Protected — Even When the Plant Is Empty

Today, leading manufacturers rely on automated monitoring, OT/IT security, and remote oversight so that even when no one is physically on-site, downtime is prevented.

A protected operation should have:
✔ Real-time alerting
✔ Endpoint monitoring for all machines
✔ OT/IT unified visibility
✔ 24/7 incident response
✔ Backup validation
✔ Network segmentation
✔ Access control monitoring
✔ Ransomware prevention

If any of these is missing, then the holiday season becomes a huge risk.

Final Thoughts

Thanksgiving shouldn’t be a stressful time for manufacturing leaders.
Your plant deserves to stay protected, your data deserves to stay secure, and your production lines deserve stability-even when your team is enjoying the holiday.

Prepare now and avoid problems later.