Steelcase Cyber Attack Should Be a Wakeup Call

In late October, another manufacturer fell victim to a serious ransomware attack. Specifically, Grand Rapids, MI-based Steelcase suffered a Ryuk ransomware attack, forcing it to halt global operations for roughly two weeks. As the world’s largest office furniture manufacturer, Steelcase has nearly 13,000 employees, a network of 800 dealers, and $3.7 billion in revenue in 2020. According to its October 26 SEC filing, Steelcase “promptly implemented a series of containment measures to address this situation including temporarily shutting down the affected systems and related operations.” The question is: Why do these events continue to occur across manufacturing environments?