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IMI disclosed on February 6, 2025, that it was responding to a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorised access to its systems. The Birmingham-based engineering group said it had hired external cybersecurity specialists to investigate and contain the incident and was taking steps to meet its regulatory obligations.
IMI did not identify an attacker, confirm ransomware, say whether data was stolen, or disclose any effect on production, deliveries, customers or employees. The precise description supported by the available evidence is therefore a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorised access—not a confirmed ransomware attack or major data theft.
What IMI disclosed
IMI’s disclosure was made through a filing to the London Stock Exchange and reported by TechCrunch. The company said it was “currently responding” to a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorised access to company systems.
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IMI said it had engaged external cybersecurity experts to investigate and contain the incident. It also said it was taking steps to comply with regulatory obligations.
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That is a corporate disclosure, not a detailed forensic report. It confirms that IMI identified unauthorised access and was responding, but it does not explain how the access occurred or what the intruder did.
When did the incident happen?
The public disclosure date was Thursday, February 6, 2025. The available information does not establish:
- When the initial compromise occurred.
- When IMI detected the activity.
- How long unauthorised access lasted.
- When investigation and recovery were completed.
It would therefore be misleading to say the attack necessarily happened on February 6. That is the date IMI disclosed the incident, not a confirmed compromise date.
Was this a data breach?
IMI reported the incident to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. The ICO confirmed to TechCrunch that it had received a data-breach report and was assessing the information provided.
This confirms regulatory reporting, but it does not prove that personal data was stolen. The available disclosure does not confirm the exposure or theft of:
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- Customer information.
- Employee records.
- Supplier details.
- Engineering designs or intellectual property.
- Company files or other confidential data.
Nor does an ICO report establish that IMI broke data-protection law, that the regulator has opened an enforcement case, or that a fine will follow. Those outcomes would require separate evidence.
Was IMI hit by ransomware?
No. The available public sources do not identify the incident as ransomware and do not name a criminal group.
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“Hacked” is broad shorthand. Unauthorised access can involve compromised credentials, malware, exploitation of an internet-facing service, business-email compromise, data theft, extortion without encryption, ransomware or third-party access. IMI’s statement does not distinguish between these possibilities.
There is also no confirmed public evidence of a ransom demand, stolen-data publication or threat-actor claim connected to IMI.
Were IMI’s factories or customers affected?
IMI did not publicly detail the effect on manufacturing, deliveries, customer support, procurement, finance or supply chains. The disclosure does not establish that production stopped, that industrial-control systems were compromised, or that customers experienced delays.
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That silence should not be read as proof that there was no disruption. It means the available disclosure does not quantify the operational impact.
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What is IMI?
IMI is a Birmingham-based, London-listed engineering group. It designs and manufactures products used in areas including industrial automation, transport, climate control, industrial process control and energy-related engineering environments.
It is not primarily an IT company. That distinction matters because an engineering group may depend on a wide mix of corporate technology and industrial infrastructure, including design repositories, enterprise-resource-planning systems, procurement platforms, logistics networks, supplier connections and production environments. None of those systems should be described as affected at IMI without confirmation.
Why Smiths Group was mentioned alongside IMI
IMI’s disclosure came about nine days after rival British engineering group Smiths Group reported its own cyber incident on January 28, 2025. In its official statement, Smiths said unauthorised access had occurred, affected systems were rapidly isolated and business-continuity plans were activated.
The timing made Smiths relevant context, but it does not prove that the two incidents were connected. The available sources do not identify a common attacker, coordinated campaign or shared vulnerability.
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Smiths later illustrated how the consequences of a cyber incident can extend beyond the initial disclosure. Its later filings said core IT systems were offline for several days, recovery was slower in its John Crane business, and the incident affected revenue and orders. Smiths reported £4 million in remediation costs in its 2025 results.
Those figures and operational effects relate to Smiths, not IMI. They cannot be used to estimate IMI’s losses.
Why engineering businesses attract cyber risk
Engineering and manufacturing companies can be valuable targets because they combine several sources of leverage:
- Intellectual property: technical designs, production methods and customer specifications may have commercial value.
- Operational dependence: production, maintenance and logistics can rely on connected systems.
- Complex supply chains: suppliers, contractors and customers may require remote or shared access.
- Downtime costs: even a short interruption can affect orders, deliveries and contractual commitments.
- Legacy technology: some industrial equipment cannot be patched, rebooted or scanned as easily as ordinary office computers.
- Distributed operations: offices, plants and third-party environments increase the number of accounts and connections that must be secured.
Smiths’ later prospectus described cyberattacks as a continuing business risk and said digitisation and greater interconnectivity increased exposure. That provides industry context, but it is not evidence about the cause or severity of the IMI incident.
What investors, customers and suppliers should watch for
Investors may look for later information about operational disruption, remediation costs, insurance, regulatory exposure, customer notifications, intellectual-property loss or any effect on financial guidance. The February 2025 disclosure does not provide enough information to quantify those risks or infer a share-price or earnings impact.
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Customers and suppliers may want to know whether orders, deliveries, payment systems, shared files or remote-access credentials were affected. The public material does not answer those questions. Any action should follow an official IMI or account-manager notification rather than speculation.
Useful update points include:
- Later IMI announcements and annual or interim reports.
- London Stock Exchange filings.
- Official customer, supplier or employee notices.
- ICO enforcement or notification activity.
- Insurance, remediation or operational disclosures.
Threat-actor claims should be treated cautiously until corroborated by the company, regulators or other reliable evidence.
Practical precautions for connected businesses
Customers, suppliers and employees should be alert to unexpected messages that appear to use the incident as a pretext. Verify requests to change bank details, reset credentials, open files or approve payments through a separate trusted channel. Follow official company instructions and avoid relying on unverified breach claims.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFor engineering and manufacturing businesses, the broader lesson is that resilience requires more than endpoint antivirus. Security planning should include identity and privileged-access monitoring, supplier access, cloud systems, remote connections, separation of corporate IT from operational technology, immutable backups and tested recovery procedures.
Monitoring services, endpoint protection, vulnerability management, incident-response retainers and cyber insurance can each help, but none is a complete solution. Vulnerability scanning must be carefully planned around fragile industrial equipment, and insurance does not replace prevention or recovery testing.
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