Hackers Attack Electronics Manufacturer: So That Happened

Editor’s note: Welcome to So That Happened, our editors’ takes on things going on in the manufacturing world that deserve some extra attention. This will appear regularly in the Member’s Only section of the site.

Hackers Take Electronics Manufacturer Down 

Last week, our favorite cybersecurity blog BleepingComputer reported that electronics manufacturer Foxconn suffered operational difficulties at multiple plants in North America owing to an attack by a cybercriminal group called “Nitrogen.” 

But that’s not the interesting (and unfortunate) part – it’s what the hackers claim they got away, 8 TB worth of data and over 11 million documents. The ransomware group claims that the data include confidential information from Apple, Intel, Google, NVIDIA and AMD among others. 

This attack was confirmed on Monday by Foxconn, but no other details were confirmed. 

BleepingComputer notes this isn’t the first time Foxconn faced cybercriminal activity, including attacks in December 2020, May 2022 and January 2024. 

—Dennis Scimeca

Product Recall Numbers Rise in Q1

Quality took something of a tumble in the first quarter of 2026, at least if product recalls are used as a key performance indicator.

The volume of recalled products in Q1 was way up compared to 2025’s fourth quarter, according to the Sedgwick’s latest U.S. Product Safety and Recall Index Report. And by “way up,” we mean that the number of recalled items grew by 27%, rising from 388 million to 492 million, quarter over quarter. It’s the highest quarterly total of the past four years.

On the plus side, the actual number of recall events declined by 10.5%, dropping from 877 events in Q4 2025 to 785 in Q1 2006.

Additional data revealed by the latest quarterly report—which examines recalls in the U.S. automotive industry, as well as consumer products, food and drink, pharmaceuticals and medical devices—show that:

• Only the consumer products industry had growth in the number of recall events, up 14.5%. The number of recalled units increased by 347%.
• The pharmaceutical sector set a record it would rather not have: Recall volume of 218.8 million units set a 12-year high.
• The volume of food sector recalls reached 37.1 million pounds, the third-highest total in more than 20 years.

In addition to hard data, the quarterly report examines regulatory developments. For example, it notes that the Food and Drug Administration has amended inspection procedures for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, and that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is looking harder at country-of-origin claims by U.S.-produced products.

“The ongoing economic uncertainty should urge companies to control what they can do, including assessing their compliance risk and evaluating their recall plans against a dynamic regulatory environment,” said Sedgwick Senior Vice President Chris Harvey.

— Jill Jusko

This Week in Leadership Surveys 

Are you an acolyte of people-centered leadership? Shingo Award-winning author, leadership coach and IndustryWeek contributor Katie Anderson wants to hear from you. Anderson is conducting a survey on the topic as part of the research for her next book. You can participate here.  

Reshoring Initiative President Harry Moser, another familiar name to IndustryWeek readers, is also busy collecting responses from manufacturers to his organization’s 2026 Reshoring Survey.  The survey, which has tracks for both large and smaller companies, examines manufacturers’ thinking behind reshoring decisions and the impact of 2025 federal policy changes. Responses will be collected through June 30 and findings shared with participants and policymakers.

—Laura Putre

Metalworking Machinery Orders Spike in March 

New orders of metalworking machinery grew to $681.3 million in March, according to the U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders Report published by The Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT). This represents a 40.3% jump from the previous month and a 31.5% increase year-over-year. 

In the first three months of 2026, metalworking machinery orders reached $1.61 billion, a 27.8% increase over the same period last year. 

In March 2026, there were 2,155 new orders for cutting machines valued at $672.4 million and 23 new orders for metal forming & fabricating machinery valued at $8.9 million. 

Power transmission systems manufacturers more than doubled their investment month-over-month, and AMT expects additional investments due to data center growth. Aerospace manufacturer orders declined slightly from the previous month but continue to be elevated due to growing commercial backlogs and the replacement of systems used in the conflict in Iran, according to AMT. 

—Anna Smith