The food retail industry is one of the few sectors thriving without having to move into the online environment entirely due to the pandemic. That’s why e-commerce is behind store-based food retail sales, which have steadily grown in the past decade, according to Statista. The survey is based on the weekly sales in food stores around Great Britain.
Although this is a narrow example, the global food & drink industry is expected to grow massively by 2027, reaching a projected market volume of £3 billion. The United States is leading the industry, with China and the UK closely following in profit and investments.
Still, regardless of its success, the food retail sector is heavily challenged by an unseen risk ―cybersecurity, especially when discussing the supply chain. Numerous companies have been hit by data breaches in recent years, from prominent food businesses to drinks organisations, so they must enhance their security systems in this dangerous digital ecosystem.
What are the risks?
Like every other industry, the food and beverage sector poses certain advantages for hackers, whether it’s about money or revenge. Schreiber Foods, the Campari Group and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario have been many companies hit by cyberattacks in recent years. In most cases, ransomware was the leading cause of the attack.
Ransomware is a complex attack that settles into six stages:
- Attackers enter the victim’s system for malware distribution and infection;
- The malware is controlled through encryption keys;
- The hacker gathers data on the victim for the perfect attack;
- Files and encrypted data are exchanged from the command-and-control servers;
- The attack is triggered, and ransom is demanded;
- The victim must pay the ransom or negotiate;
What are the outcomes?
Ransomware hitting businesses is quite devastating. The effects of the attack include loss of data, revenue and productivity. In the worst case, ransomware can damage a company’s reputation and expose it to further attacks. Depending on the case’s severity, data breaches can lead to PTSD and psychiatric harm, according to https://www.databreachclaims.org.uk/. In these cases, clients can file for compensation, but sometimes, the company’s systems are heavily corrupted. That’s why prevention is ideal.
How can companies protect themselves from data breaches?
The short answer to the issue stands in proper investment. Data breaches are difficult to overcome but can be foreseen with a better risk management plan and enough resources allocated to the security sector.
Lowering the chances of a data breach means taking all the precautions. It starts with the company’s inside team, where leaders should restrict access to specific files to reduce vulnerabilities considerably. While you can invest in better training programs, there are several cases when this is not enough.
Evaluating the company’s health security is also essential because the result will provide in-depth risk details. Moreover, you can ensure the best security measures, from firewalls, VPNs and traffic monitoring. Still, these strategies should be supplemented by constant audits and re-evaluation of current security protection.
Still, sometimes prevention isn’t enough
In many cases, it’s already too late to stop the breach, so despite all the preventions you took for the company to avoid risks, there’s nothing else to do than assess the incident response plan (IRP). This project includes the people, roles and processes settled to respond effectively to the problem.
The first step involves identifying the systems that would impact the business the most as a result of the breach. Food manufacturing might want to focus on the production line system, recipe, and formulation data.
An incident response cycle should include several steps of protecting the company’s data, from preparing and containing to eradicating the issue. In these cases, continuous learning and identifying problem sources are crucial for efficient responses to cyberattacks.
But maybe one of the most critical elements during this incident is improved communication. Most of the time, going through such an event affects one’s ability to communicate the issue to the public or negotiate the ransom, and this element can be decisive. Efficient communication can be improved through continuous preparation, allocating roles and responsibilities for each step in the prevention plan and establishing the best communication channels for rapid involvement and safe engagement.
Case studies of food companies hit by cyberattacks
The pandemic significantly affected the security and preparedness of food and beverage companies, as their focus was to continue delivering and producing the same qualitative products in poor conditions and stressful situations.
This led to the risk exposure of massive companies, like the Campari Group. The Italian liquor company demanded a £12 million ransom in 2020 from the prominent Ragnar Locker ransomware group. The websites were taken down as the group claimed to have stolen two TB of unencrypted files and accessed international systems that included government letters, personal client information and confidential data. As a result, the company’s services were disrupted for about a week.
JBS Foods, a Brazil-based meat processing supplier, paid £8 million to the REvil ransomware group the following year to protect its customers. The company’s standard production and activity were affected, and politicians heavily criticised the action, considering it supported further attacks and their incentivisation.
The same ransomware group attacked Harvest Food Distributors and Sherwood Food Distributors the previous year, asking for £6 million. The companies tried to negotiate, but the hackers threatened to make the ransom even more devastating. The attack caused the leaks of numerous confidential customer files, compromised data of driver’s licenses and proprietary vendor information.
Final considerations
The food and beverage industry is crucial for maintaining the world. Unfortunately, it’s continuously challenged by global disputes and supply chain disruptions. On top of that, cybersecurity attacks are weakening companies’ systems, making them the perfect targets for data breaches and the subject of ransom.
Only in the past years have many businesses been hit by ransomware, a complex type of cyberattack where hackers enter companies’ systems and can install corrupted files and steal important information. In exchange for recovery, hackers ask for consistent ransom, and businesses can pay it, negotiate or find support in mitigating the issue.
About the author
Cathy is one of blacktialnyc.com founders. As an owner of multiple bars in the last 17 years, Cathy brings her experience into her writings, to educate our tasty readers.
