FBI warning: ransomware attacks targeting food and agriculture businesses
Posted by: GuidePoint Security
Published 9/8/2021, 9:00am
If the supply chain problems related to Covid and weather weren’t bad enough, the FBI is now warning businesses operating in the agricultural and food sections that ransomware gangs are actively targeting and disrupting operations, creating potentially significant troubles in the food supply chain. The FBI advises that food and agriculture businesses of all sizes are targets—from “small farms to large producers, processors and manufacturers, and markets and restaurants.”
Like many ransomware attacks, victims suffer significant financial damage due to ransom payments, loss of productivity, and the cost to remediate the attack. The FBI also advises that companies may lose sensitive or proprietary information.
Recent organizations that have been attacked included a US bakery company, a US beverage company, a US farm, and other food- and agriculture-based businesses. The FBI includes the May attack on JBS Foods on their recent victim list.
Next Steps
The FBI and security experts are advising businesses to take all steps possible to implement protections and mitigate against attacks, including:
- Regularly back up data on systems not connected to the main system
- Use network segmentation
- Implement an incident response and recovery plan
- Patch vulnerable systems and install updates immediately
- Use multifactor authentication
- Apply least privilege and zero trust policies
- Disable unused remote access/RDP ports and monitor remote access/RDP logs
GuidePoint Security