CyManII CEO Howard Grimes has an expression he often repeats: “Cybersecurity is everyone’s problem today,” he says. “But it’s no one’s problem until it’s your problem.”

Since its founding in 2020, CyManII, which is an acronym for the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute, has been undertaking several initiatives to make companies more secure, with a particular focus on small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs). Sometimes SMMs assume that, because they are not large or high-profile firms, they are less susceptible to a cyberattack. That’s simply not the case, Grimes notes. In fact, he says, smaller firms often have older equipment and systems, which coupled with lower budgets for cybersecurity, can make them more vulnerable than their larger counterparts.