When War Comes for Industry

The Private Sector Becomes a Target.

A new front opened in the war yesterday. Not in the Gulf.

Medical equipment company Stryker was hit in a cyberattack that disrupted its systems around the world on Wednesday. Stryker has not said who was behind the attack, but an Iranian-aligned hacker group appeared to claim responsibility, framing it as retaliation for a missile strike on an Iranian elementary school. The company said Thursday that it was still restoring its communications and ordering systems.

Iran’s cyber capabilities are not theoretical. Targeting industry is a natural step in this war.

In the wake of the CrowdStrike outage in 2024, corporations and organizations across the globe took a hard look at business continuity and crisis communications plans. They should do it again now.

Corporate leaders are used to thinking about geopolitical conflict in terms of second-order effects: supply chain disruption, trade dynamics, regulatory risk, market instability. What they may be less prepared for is the possibility that corporations themselves become a direct target, with conflict hitting their own systems and operations.

But that is the logic of asymmetry. If you want to create pressure, you do not need to strike the state directly. Hit the companies and institutions people depend on, create economic friction, and raise the domestic cost of continuing hostilities. Increase pressure. Industry is not off to the side of this conflict. It is part of the terrain.

That should force a more serious view of preparedness across companies, institutions, cities, and municipalities. Cyber disruption will continue to be part of this conflict. Pressure will move through the private sector before it reaches political leaders, and organizations will need to keep functioning when it does.

That is asymmetry in modern war.

This is part of the insight series at Alchemy Communications & Consulting. Read more at alchemy-communications.com