Managed IT for Manufacturers

According to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026, ransomware remains the top cybercrime threat to Canadian critical infrastructure. Ransomware can interrupt production and shipping.

Between January and September 2025, over 4,700 ransomware incidents were recorded globally. Half targeted critical infrastructure sectors including manufacturing (KELA, 2025).

Manufacturing environments are tightly connected. ERP, shipping, inventory, and email all feed production. Ransomware locks these systems and halts output. Even a short outage delays orders, disrupts schedules, and creates downstream customer and supplier problems.

In a published case study, a Fusion Computing client experienced ransomware on a Friday evening. Systems were isolated, backups verified, and the business was fully operational by Monday morning. 100% of data recovered, $0 ransom paid. Read the full case study.

You share systems, portals, and data flows with suppliers, logistics partners, and vendors. If outside credentials are compromised or stale access isn’t cleaned up, attackers enter through a partner relationship rather than a direct attack.

Plant-floor devices and connected equipment sit alongside office IT. Without segmentation, one compromised workstation or remote-access path can expose environments that were never meant to connect. You need clear separation between office, warehouse, and plant-adjacent infrastructure.

Over one in five organizations reported a cybersecurity incident affecting OT systems in the past year, and 40% of those incidents caused operational disruption (SANS ICS/OT Cybersecurity Report, 2025).

Attackers impersonate suppliers, customers, or executives to redirect payments or deliver malware. Manufacturing payment chains move quickly and involve multiple people. It’s exactly the environment BEC thrives in. If you’re not running email security and training together, you’re exposed.

According to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, Baseline Cyber Security Controls for Small and Medium Organizations (V1.2, February 2020), every Canadian SMB should hit 13 baseline controls. They include MFA, patched and supported systems, secure mobility, and a written incident response plan.

Fusion runs that baseline as the floor on every manufacturing engagement. For clients whose customers ask for attestation, we layer ISO 27001 controls on top.

Since 2012, Fusion Computing has supported Canadian manufacturers with 93% first-contact resolution, CISSP-led security, and services aligned to CIS Controls v8.1.

A generic office-focused provider will underestimate what’s at stake on a plant floor. Your production schedule depends on ERP, shipping, and network systems staying up through second and third shifts. Shared devices, scanners, wireless coverage, and segmented networks need tighter operational control than a standard office does.

Fusion has supported Canadian businesses where uptime, security, and accountability matter since 2012. Our CEO holds the CISSP certification, so senior cybersecurity leadership guides your security posture rather than a generalist help desk. We align services to CIS Controls v8.1, a defensible baseline for insurance applications, vendor questionnaires, and day-to-day control hygiene.

Across the Greater Toronto Area, manufacturers rely on our Toronto IT support services and managed IT services Toronto to keep production systems secure and available. For facilities with OT/IT convergence concerns, our Toronto cybersecurity services cover endpoint protection, compliance, and incident response.

Security leadership

You get endpoint management, ERP infrastructure support, IT/OT network segmentation, a shift-aware help desk, cybersecurity monitoring, backup and disaster recovery, and Microsoft 365 administration. It is one per-user monthly fee starting at $185. You’re not managing five vendors to cover what we handle under one contract.

Office PCs, shared terminals, warehouse scanners, label printers, tablets, and mobile devices, all configured, patched, monitored, and policy-enforced. For connected devices on the IT side of the boundary, we focus on isolation, access controls, and update coordination.

We support the IT infrastructure your business systems depend on, including workstations, servers, networking, backups, identity, Microsoft 365, and user access.

Your ERP vendor handles application-layer issues, and we coordinate with them while keeping the environment underneath stable and secure. We commonly work alongside Epicor, SAP Business One, SYSPRO, Fishbowl, and JobBOSS. If it’s slow or failing, we’ll find out why.

We design and maintain network infrastructure that separates office IT from warehouse and plant-adjacent environments. VLANs, firewall policy, wireless segmentation, and access controls prevent a compromised endpoint from reaching systems it should never touch.

Fusion secures the surrounding IT environment and the boundary controls around plant-floor systems. We don’t manage PLC or SCADA logic directly.

An operations manager can’t reach the ERP. A shipping workstation fails before a carrier cutoff. A plant terminal loses connectivity. You make one call, to one technician who already knows your environment. Our first-contact resolution rate is 93%.

Manufacturing doesn’t stop at 5pm. We provide after-hours monitoring, ticketing, and escalation paths for second and third shift operations. Monitoring and escalation follow your production schedule rather than standard business hours.

Endpoint protection, MDR through Huntress, email security, vulnerability management, MFA, backup oversight, and response coordination. The goal: a workstation or identity issue shouldn’t become a business-wide outage.

Encrypted, air-gapped backups with tested restores. That is recovery readiness: ERP data, file shares, order history, and business records come back cleanly under pressure.

Manufacturers hold customer, supplier and employee data. Privacy duties depend on the activity and jurisdiction. Customer questionnaires and cyber insurance applications also ask for documented security controls.

Privacy Obligations

This content is informational and does not constitute legal advice. PIPEDA generally covers commercial personal information; employee records are covered for federal works, undertakings and businesses. Provincial privacy laws may apply instead.

For breaches subject to PIPEDA, report to the OPC and notify affected individuals when there is a real risk of significant harm. Keep records of every breach for at least 24 months after determining it occurred.

Supply Chain & Customer Requirements

Large customers, OEMs, procurement teams, and prime contractors increasingly expect you to show documented controls before they award or renew business. Common asks include MFA, access controls, backup verification, endpoint protection, vulnerability management, and incident response planning. Fusion’s CIS Controls v8.1 alignment helps create the documentation these questionnaires and reviews typically require.

Ontario plants also operate under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1). When a cyber incident knocks out an HMI, an interlock, or a safety-rated PLC, the operational exposure overlaps with worker-safety obligations. In the most serious cases it triggers reporting to Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. IT and OT cannot be treated as separate problems on the plant floor.

Cyber Insurance & Regulatory Readiness

Cyber insurers increasingly expect documented controls around MFA, backups, endpoint protection, email security, and incident response. A structured baseline makes renewals, underwriting conversations, and customer due diligence easier.

If you operate in, supply into, or exchange sensitive operational data with federally regulated critical sectors, expect those cybersecurity expectations to keep rising. IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach report puts the Canadian average breach at CA$6.98 million. Insurance readiness isn’t optional.

Manufacturers are adopting AI for quality inspection, predictive maintenance, and demand forecasting, but most don’t have the IT infrastructure to support it securely.

Your operations generate data at every stage, from production and quality to inventory, maintenance, and shipping. Fusion’s AI Services help you find where automation, Microsoft Copilot, and intelligent workflows can reduce manual work, improve accuracy, and support better decisions. We start with a practical assessment of your actual operations, rather than a generic AI pitch.

Guides & Resources

One-page overview: Managed IT for Manufacturers (PDF), what we run, how it is delivered and what it costs.

Choosing a provider: Best IT providers for Canadian manufacturers (2026), a buyer’s comparison by security, compliance, and software fit.

Adopting AI safely: Claude Cowork for manufacturers, how to scope an AI agent to one job folder and keep it off the plant network.

Quality control and traceability systems reduce defects and ensure compliance. Real-time quality monitoring catches defects earlier in the production cycle, reducing scrap and rework costs.