Ransomware Incident Response — Manufacturing Plant
A ransomware group encrypted 60% of the production network during a night shift. Plant operations halted.
Operations restored in 72 hours. Root cause identified. Reinfection prevented.
Engagement Overview
Emergency incident response engagement following a ransomware attack on a mid-sized manufacturing plant. Called in 4 hours after initial detection.
Situation
Production halted across 3 of 5 plant lines. 60% of Windows endpoints encrypted. Backup systems partially affected. Ransom demand received. No cyber insurance.
Response Timeline
Hour 0–6: On-site triage. Network isolation of affected segments. Identification of patient zero via Windows Event Logs and EDR telemetry.
Hour 6–24: Forensic imaging of key systems. Threat actor TTPs identified — Conti variant. Initial access vector confirmed: phishing email with malicious macro, delivered 8 days prior. Attacker dwell time: 8 days.
Hour 24–48: Clean restoration from offline backups (2 plant lines restored). Threat actor persistence mechanisms removed from 47 endpoints.
Hour 48–72: Remaining 3 plant lines restored. Full production resumed. Hardening recommendations delivered.
Root Cause
Phishing email bypassed email filters due to a misconfigured anti-spoofing policy. Macro execution was not disabled by Group Policy on workstations. No network segmentation between corporate and OT network allowed lateral movement.
Post-Incident Hardening
- Email anti-spoofing policies corrected
- Macro execution disabled via GPO across all workstations
- OT network segmented from corporate LAN
- Offline backup cadence increased from weekly to daily
- EDR deployed across all endpoints
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