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As federal and commercial owners raise expectations, construction cybersecurity has moved from an IT concern to a financial and competitive factor. From insurance renewals and bonding to owner prequalification and CMMC compliance, cybersecurity increasingly affects your ability to pursue profitable work.
Maintain compliance with CMMC and other regulations.
Know how your security stacks up against requirements and the latest threats.
Plan for continuity and how your business can respond to cyberattacks.
Strengthen your security with guidance and strategy from industry-focused advisors.
Security that strengthens all your operations
Your office teams, field crews and remote users all play a role in productivity — and all require consistent, reliable protection. Wipfli applies our extensive industry experience to help firms secure their workforce without slowing down projects.
Explore our services
Get guidance for accreditation and compliance with major frameworks and regulations, including the NIST cybersecurity framework, CMMC certification and PCI.
Combine our 24/7 monitoring, managed detection and response and event management into one high-touch support package that scales to your operations.
Protect project timelines and financial stability with a business continuity and incident response plan that keeps your data, documents and systems available when disruptions hit.
Defend against costly losses before they happen. We test the security of your systems by using real-world attacks and tactics such as penetration testing and social engineering.
See how your cybersecurity posture aligns with compliance requirements, NIST and construction-specific best practices and get actionable gap assessments.
Strengthen trust with stakeholders and stay ahead of regulatory demands with a vCISO who provides strategic guidance, leadership, incident response and executive-ready reporting.
Understand your cybersecurity risks, from external attacks and unauthorized access to ransomware, downtime and financial theft.
Give our team secure access to your systems and cloud, and we’ll pinpoint vulnerabilities so you can strengthen cybersecurity risk management before a real attack disrupts projects or cash flow.
Insights and resources
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Bet big on construction technology
Construction companies that want to make big bets on construction technology need to accept one uncomfortable truth: some of those bets are going to fail. That’s not a flaw in the strategy. It’s something you need to lean into. Risk management is fundamental to construction. It protects margins, keeps projects on track and keeps the business healthy. But when risk aversion governs every technology decision, it can quietly kill your upside. Why avoiding technology risks holds you back Most construction leaders want evidence before committing to a new platform or initiative. They want to understand the return, minimize employee disruption and avoid investing in something that doesn’t deliver. That’s reasonable, but it limits opportunities to win big. A mentality that’s overly focused on mitigating risk makes companies reluctant to pursue anything with an uncertain outcome. And the opportunities with the greatest potential are often the ones that can’t guarantee an upfront return. Here’s a contradiction worth pondering: many of the same owners running conservative internal technology budgets are actively seeking venture investments and alternative private opportunities outside the business. They’re looking at deals with real upside and real risk, such as startups and private companies. Some owners with meaningful annual income are talking to their money managers about getting beyond typical index funds and getting into alternative investment vehicles — like investing in the next hot startup. If they’re comfortable taking bigger swings outside of the firm, why not within it? What it really means to bet big Is your firm willing to make a big bet? Venture investing means accepting that some investments will crash and burn. By definition, venture is about taking swings big enough that you’ll fail as often as you succeed, if not more. The strategy can work because the investments that do succeed hit big. A true big-bet mentality requires accepting uncertainty. For construction companies, that means giving technology and operations leaders room to experiment with initiatives that might fail while staying focused on identifying those capable of creating outsized value. Betting big on construction technology doesn’t mean taking risks with live projects or threatening core operations. It means carving out space for deliberate experimentation. Approach technology and AI initiatives as a portfolio rather than expecting each one to succeed. When an initiative doesn’t work, there’s still value in learning what doesn’t fit your organization. You’ll make a more informed call on the next investment. Which construction technology bets are worth making? Accepting more uncertainty doesn’t mean making random investments. Construction leaders can develop a clear lens for deciding which opportunities are worth betting on by considering these four criteria when assessing technologies: Employee experience: Could it improve how your people work or strengthen your ability to attract and retain talent? Labor is one of construction’s most persistent challenges; solving for it has ripple effects. If you’re focused on improving talent attraction and retention, you’re mitigating challenges that would have otherwise surfaced later. Data and AI readiness: What are you doing to connect your systems or improve the data foundation that makes it easier for AI to work for you? A data warehouse like Snowflake is one example of a technology initiative that strengthens that foundation. Skills and process development: Not every investment has to be software. Business process mapping and SOP development tend to have outsized benefits. You want to be consistent and give AI a better understanding of what’s unique about how you operate. Learning potential: Even if the initiative doesn’t succeed, could the effort teach you something that makes the next decision sharper? The objective isn’t to remove uncertainty. It’s to take purposeful risks rather than random ones. Does your culture match your tech strategy? Commit to a culture that enables innovation and doesn’t penalize the first person whose experiment doesn’t work. Picture a technology leader at a firm who spends a year testing three new initiatives that are backed by leadership. Two show promise. One falls flat. At the annual review, that failure is a mark against their performance. The message lands clearly: experimentation is only welcome when it succeeds. This will stifle a culture of innovation. If calculated risk-taking is genuinely part of your strategy, it’s important that your job descriptions, hiring criteria and performance management reflect that. A responsible experiment that doesn’t succeed can’t be treated the same as poor performance. Learn from technology failures This requires a real shift in how you define success. Not every experiment will scale across the company, and not every initiative will result in an immediate productivity boost. There’s value in learning from those outcomes and building a culture that’s resilient to software and other tech launches that don’t go as planned. A disappointing rollout shouldn’t set back your technology strategy for years. If you treat it as part of an ongoing process of testing, learning and adapting, it’s a source of data. To keep failure survivable, experimentation shouldn’t put active projects at risk. The goal is a deliberate process that lets you test ideas in a way that’s safe to learn from. What success looks like Success isn’t batting a thousand on your technology experiments. Success is pivoting your organization from one averse to technology and change to one with an innovative culture that is open to trying new things. Even if initiatives aren’t guaranteed to produce financial returns, the whole organization understands you’re capable of thinking big. Make room for bigger swings Technology and AI are opening new possibilities for how construction companies operate. But not every new tool comes with guaranteed returns. Companies that demand certainty from every experiment may be the ones standing still when a competitor’s bigger bet pays off. Build experimentation into the strategy while maintaining a clear line between the risks you need to control and the risks worth taking. Strengthen your data and technology foundation to improve the odds of success. Choose purposeful bets and give your people room to try things. Focus on extracting lessons from projects that don’t work. Remember, if your big bets are never allowed to fail, are they even bets? Watch our construction technology webinar Watch our webinar, What’s worth the risk? Driving ROI with construction technology , for a deeper dive into technology decisions. You will learn from Wipfli’s construction and technology leaders about: What’s real and what’s hype in construction technology The risks leaders should be willing to take Why technology initiatives succeed or fail How to avoid chasing every shiny new tool When to invest and when to optimize How waiting for ROI could limit your innovation Read more Cybersecurity in construction: How CIOs can better protect their firms Construction technology ROI: How to measure and maximize your investment Construction technology management: How to Improve performance and alignment
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Intelligent UI for construction
Learn how construction leaders can use Intelligent UI to access key data quickly in an easy-to-read format.
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Cybersecurity in construction: How CIOs can better protect their firms
Construction firms face a rising level of cybersecurity risk. But too many firms still don’t have a proper cybersecurity strategy in place, which is likely why Wipfli’s survey of 308 construction executives found that 80% reported experiencing at least one data breach within the past year. However, there are proven steps and processes you can implement to strengthen your defenses. Done thoughtfully, a cyber strategy will not only protect your business, data and infrastructure but also give you an opportunity to modernize your systems to meet the changing demands of the industry . Let’s explore further. Why does cybersecurity matter for construction firms? For construction firms, investing in modern cybersecurity and IT infrastructure, whether as an internal capacity or through outsourcing, carries clear business benefits. Beyond mitigating the risk of a cyberattack , stronger cybersecurity also creates business opportunities and even makes it easier to recruit top talent. Key benefits include: Reduced risk of attack: This is obviously a big one. With better defenses and more modern systems in place, you’ll be less likely to experience a major (and majorly expensive) cybersecurity incident or suffer significant ripple effects if an attack does get through. DoD contracts: If you meet CMMC requirements, you’ll be able to bid on DoD and other government contracts. Data center bids: Strong cybersecurity is also often necessary to compete for complex private sector projects like data centers. Competitive advantage: If you get ahead of competitors in upgrading your systems, you’ll be able to move faster, with a lower risk of being slowed by an attack. Recruiting: You’ll have an easier time recruiting talented employees who want to work for innovative companies. Top cybersecurity challenges faced by construction firms Every industry is vulnerable to cyberattacks, but construction may be especially so. The construction business tends to be fairly traditional, with an emphasis on following proven processes rather than chasing new ideas — a tendency which has left firms more exposed than their counterparts in other industries. Here are some of the top reasons that construction firms are vulnerable to cybersecurity incidents: Underinvestment: Construction companies have historically underinvested in IT and cybersecurity. Manufacturers, for example, spend 3% to 5% of revenue on IT, while construction typically spends closer to 1% to 2%. Large financial transactions: Construction firms buy large amounts of materials and expensive equipment. They also receive large draw payments from their clients. This makes them lucrative targets for cybersecurity attacks due to their historically poor security investments. Rising insurance premiums: Insurance providers are now charging construction companies higher cybersecurity insurance premiums because of the higher risk those firms face. Cyber requirements in contracts: The Department of Defense and other federal agencies now require construction firms to meet cybersecurity maturity model certification (CMMC) requirements in order to bid for contracts. Private data center contracts will often have similar rules. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) security requirements are also appearing in many contracts. Disconnected systems: As many construction firms still rely heavily on older software and technology, they frequently don’t have integrated, cloud-based systems in place. This usually leads to fragmented, siloed data and a larger footprint for an attack. Slowed productivity: Companies using outdated tech systems are often less productive than their peers. From a cyber-specific perspective, consider the impact an attack could have on your ability to conduct day-to-day operations. Limited IT talent: Construction firms using legacy tech solutions may struggle to hire skilled IT employees, as talented candidates typically prefer to work for businesses that use the latest tech. All of these elements either increase the risk of a cyberattack, prevent your business from bidding on certain contracts or otherwise limit opportunities. Fortunately, there is a relatively straightforward solution to this problem. Cybersecurity best practices for construction companies Implementing a practical, up-to-date cybersecurity strategy will help mitigate your company’s cyber risks and reduce the likelihood of suffering a costly cyberattack. Think holistically In many cases, you’re often better off upgrading your cybersecurity and IT infrastructure over one defined upgrade period rather than doing it piecemeal over several years. This holistic approach allows you to modernize your entire tech stack to not only strengthen your cyber defenses but also transition to cloud-based, integrated systems that will help you remain competitive with your peers. Do a cybersecurity assessment An effective cybersecurity risk management strategy should be tailored to your specific threats and vulnerabilities. Start by working with a cybersecurity advisor to do an IT health and cybersecurity assessment , which will often be based on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) assessment. This will help you identify high-priority weak spots that need to be addressed, as well as which vulnerabilities may be lower-priority. Create a roadmap Based on the results of your assessment, create a roadmap for strengthening your cybersecurity and IT capabilities. When developing your roadmap, also consider tech trends within the construction industry , the age of your own systems, and any critical control gaps you’ve identified. Establish a budget Once you know what needs to be upgraded, put together a budget based on criticality. A full tech and cybersecurity upgrade might take over a year, although this can vary depending on your organizational needs, so your budget can help you plan out how to make good use of that time by deciding which systems to upgrade first. You can use the priority ranking from your assessment to good effect here. Leverage outsourcing If upgrading your cybersecurity and tech stack on your own sounds like a lot to handle, consider outsourcing and managed services support . Outsourcing is especially useful for construction firms because modern cybersecurity typically requires more resources than a single, in-house IT person can bring to bear. An outsourcing relationship can allow you to access top-tier cybersecurity talent without needing to hire your own larger internal team, and can also include strategic leadership like a vCIO or vCISO. Train your team An outsourcing partner can’t do everything for you. You’ll still need to train your own team on how to limit cybersecurity risks by avoiding phishing attempts or other common attacks. For maximum effect, this training should be ongoing, not just a one-time event. What are the key barriers to change that construction CIOs must overcome? Construction leaders who want to spearhead a cybersecurity and IT upgrade may first need to overcome several barriers to change. These include: Lack of clarity around risks: Some leaders may not realize just how vulnerable their business is. To create buy-in around an upgrade, you can ask an advisory firm to conduct penetration testing of your existing systems. Cultural resistance: Construction firms that still rely heavily on legacy systems and processes may also be culturally resistant to change. Confusion around regulatory requirements: Construction isn’t used to being a regulated industry, so many firms may be unaware or not fully under CMMC or similar requirements. Communications: Your internal IT person may struggle to articulate the business case for tech upgrades because they don’t have the knowledge and background. Transition or succession complications: An owner who is preparing to exit may see cybersecurity upgrades as something that the next owner can worry about — but should consider that implementing an effective, modern tech stack will actually boost the value of the business in a sale. Learn how 308 construction leaders are deploying technology to deliver impact Wipfli interviewed 308 construction executives to find out how firms are deploying technology today. Read the full report, “The state of technology in the construction industry” to gain fresh insights on cybersecurity, AI, data strategies and growth. Get the original research report Read more Cybersecurity is a financial issue, not just an IT problem AI in construction 101: How to keep your firm competitive How to improve performance with smarter construction technology management
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