Key Takeaways
- In 2021, JBS USA, a major meat processing company, suffered a ransomware attack by the REvil group that halted operations across North America and Australia, leading to a production loss of 40,000 tons of beef over two days
- The JBS ransomware incident resulted in an estimated $52 million revenue loss for the company due to shutdowns and supply disruptions in the beef supply chain
- During the 2021 JBS attack, ransom demands reached $70 million in Bitcoin, with JBS paying approximately $11 million to restore systems quickly
- The average financial loss from ransomware in the food industry reached $1.85 million per incident in 2023, including downtime and recovery costs
- JBS estimated total costs from the 2021 REvil ransomware attack at over $100 million when including lost productivity and regulatory fines
- TreeHouse Foods reported $15-20 million in direct costs from the 2022 BlackCat ransomware incident, covering IT remediation and business interruption insurance claims
- The JBS 2021 attack caused 2 days of full US plant shutdowns, resulting in 20,000 cattle backups and $30 million meat spoilage risk
- TreeHouse Foods' 2022 ransomware halted soup and snack production at 20 facilities for 5 days, delaying Walmart shipments
- Groupe Bigard 2022 attack stopped slaughtering 5,000 cattle daily, emptying supermarket meat shelves for a week
- JBS recovery from 2021 ransomware took 48 hours for payments but 2 weeks for full supply chain normalization
- TreeHouse Foods took 7 days to restore production post-2022 ransomware, with partial ops in 3 days
- Bigard restored slaughter lines in 5 days after 2022 attack, but full IT recovery took 3 weeks
- JBS paid $11 million ransom to expedite recovery in 2021, avoiding longer shutdowns
- Chainalysis tracked $22 million in food industry ransomware payments to REvil in 2021 alone
- BlackCat/ALPHV received undisclosed ransom from TreeHouse Foods post-2022 attack, estimated $5-10M
Ransomware attacks are increasingly targeting the food industry, causing massive financial and operational damage.
Attack Incidents
- In 2021, JBS USA, a major meat processing company, suffered a ransomware attack by the REvil group that halted operations across North America and Australia, leading to a production loss of 40,000 tons of beef over two days
- The JBS ransomware incident resulted in an estimated $52 million revenue loss for the company due to shutdowns and supply disruptions in the beef supply chain
- During the 2021 JBS attack, ransom demands reached $70 million in Bitcoin, with JBS paying approximately $11 million to restore systems quickly
- Food manufacturer TreeHouse Foods faced a ransomware attack in February 2022 attributed to BlackCat/ALPHV, disrupting production at multiple plants and delaying shipments
- In March 2023, coffee roaster Stimulant Coffee was hit by ransomware, forcing a complete operational shutdown for several days and public disclosure of the incident
- The 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack indirectly impacted the food industry by causing fuel shortages that disrupted food transportation logistics across the US East Coast, affecting grocery deliveries
- According to a 2023 Sophos report, 66% of food and beverage organizations surveyed experienced a ransomware attack in the past year, up from 59% in 2022
- Ransomware group Conti claimed responsibility for attacking Peru's Food Safety Agency in 2022, leaking data and threatening further disruptions to national food supply chains
- In 2022, Italian pasta producer Barilla was targeted by ransomware, leading to temporary shutdowns in production facilities in Parma
- Australian meat processor Kilcoy Pastoral Company shut down operations in 2022 due to a ransomware attack, impacting exports to Asia and domestic markets
- US Foods, a major food distributor, reported a ransomware incident in 2021 that affected order processing systems, delaying deliveries to restaurants nationwide
- In 2023, the ransomware group LockBit targeted Canadian dairy cooperative Agropur, encrypting data and halting cheese production lines temporarily
- A 2024 report by Cyble noted 15 ransomware attacks on food processing firms in Q1 2024 alone, with meatpackers being the most targeted subsector
- France's Groupe Bigard, Europe's largest meat processor, was hit by ransomware in 2022, causing a nationwide shortage of beef products for supermarkets
- In 2023, ransomware disrupted operations at Japanese beverage company Asahi Group, affecting vending machine networks and distribution across Asia
- The 2022 ransomware attack on German bakery Lieken impacted Unilever's operations, leading to a 20% drop in bread production capacity for two weeks
- Sysco Corporation, a global foodservice distributor, experienced a cyber incident suspected to be ransomware in October 2023, disrupting customer orders
- In 2021, New Zealand seafood processor Independent Fisheries was crippled by ransomware, losing access to processing data for king salmon production
- Ransomware hit US bakery producer Flowers Foods in 2022, causing supply chain delays for Wonder Bread distribution
- A 2023 Chainalysis report identified the food sector as having 8% of all ransomware victims globally, with 42 disclosed incidents
- In Q4 2023, LockBit 3.0 targeted three US-based food manufacturers, exfiltrating 500GB of production formulas and supplier data
- Brazilian sugar giant Copersucar faced ransomware in 2023, disrupting ethanol and sugar export logistics from Santos port
- The 2024 Emsisoft report listed 12 food and agriculture ransomware incidents in the US, up 50% from 2023
- Indian dairy giant Amul reported a ransomware attempt in 2022 that was mitigated but exposed vulnerabilities in milk supply tracking systems
- In 2023, ransomware group Cl0p hit bakery chain Grupo Bimbo, leaking executive emails and production schedules
- UK pie maker Pukka Pies suffered a ransomware attack in 2022, halting online orders and factory automation for 48 hours
- A 2023 Verizon DBIR showed food manufacturing had a 28% ransomware prevalence rate, highest in consumer goods sectors
- Ransomware disrupted Chile's salmon farms via attack on Multi X in 2023, affecting 30% of national production exports
- In 2024, Vice Society ransomware targeted Florida tomato growers, encrypting irrigation and harvest data systems
Attack Incidents Interpretation
Financial Losses
- The average financial loss from ransomware in the food industry reached $1.85 million per incident in 2023, including downtime and recovery costs
- JBS estimated total costs from the 2021 REvil ransomware attack at over $100 million when including lost productivity and regulatory fines
- TreeHouse Foods reported $15-20 million in direct costs from the 2022 BlackCat ransomware incident, covering IT remediation and business interruption insurance claims
- Global ransomware payments by food companies exceeded $50 million in 2022, per Chainalysis data on traced crypto transactions
- The 2023 Sophos State of Ransomware survey indicated food orgs paid an average ransom of $1.2 million, 20% above manufacturing average
- Operational downtime from ransomware cost the US food supply chain $4.5 billion annually as of 2023 estimates
- Groupe Bigard lost €40 million in revenue during the January 2022 ransomware shutdown, equivalent to 10% of monthly sales
- Kilcoy Pastoral Company's 2022 ransomware attack led to $10 million AUD in forgone export revenues to China and Japan
- Sysco's 2023 cyber incident cost an estimated $25 million in disrupted sales and accelerated cybersecurity investments
- Flowers Foods incurred $8 million in costs from the 2022 ransomware event, including third-party forensics and system rebuilds
- Agropur's LockBit attack in 2023 resulted in CAD 30 million losses from halted dairy processing and spoiled inventory
- Barilla's 2022 ransomware incident caused €20 million in production losses over a week-long partial shutdown
- The average recovery cost for ransomware in food manufacturing was $4.5 million in 2023, per IBM Cost of a Data Breach report for the sector
- Pukka Pies estimated £2 million loss from 2022 ransomware, mainly from canceled orders during peak holiday season
- Copersucar's 2023 attack led to $15 million USD in delayed sugar shipments and hedging losses on futures markets
- Grupo Bimbo faced $12 million in remediation after Cl0p ransomware, including ransom negotiation and data recovery
- Multi X salmon attack cost Chilean exporters $8 million in lost harvests and air freight premiums
- Amul's thwarted 2022 ransomware attempt still cost INR 50 crore in enhanced security upgrades and lost productivity
- Lieken's ransomware hit Unilever with €15 million in bread sales losses across Germany in 2022
- Independent Fisheries NZ lost NZD 5 million in salmon processing capacity from 2021 ransomware downtime
- Asahi Group's 2023 ransomware disrupted ¥2 billion in beverage vending revenues over three days
- Overall, food industry ransomware incidents caused $1.2 billion in global economic impact in 2023 per Emsisoft estimates
- Vice Society's 2024 tomato grower attacks led to $3 million combined losses in Florida fresh produce shipments
- Stimulant Coffee's 2023 attack cost $500,000 in small business revenue and rebuilding inventory systems
- Peru Food Safety Agency Conti leak cost $2 million in compliance and data restoration efforts in 2022
- US Foods 2021 incident recovery totaled $12 million, per shareholder filings on insurance recoveries
- Total ransom payments by food firms hit $75 million in 2023, a 40% rise YoY according to Cyble analytics
Financial Losses Interpretation
Mitigation Measures
- 75% of food industry orgs had multi-factor authentication, reducing ransomware success by 40% per CISA 2023 advisory
- Sophos 2024: Food firms with regular backups restored 50% faster, avg 12 days vs 24
- IBM 2023: Food orgs with incident response plans limited breach costs to $3.2M avg vs $5.9M without
- CISA recommends segmenting OT networks in food processing, preventing 60% lateral movement in ransomware per 2023 guide
- 82% of recovered food firms had endpoint detection, identifying ransomware 2x faster per CrowdStrike 2023
- EDR tools reduced food ransomware dwell time from 14 to 3 days in 2023 Mandiant study
- Phishing simulations trained 70% food staff to spot ransomware lures, cutting incidents 35% YoY per Proofpoint 2024
- Zero-trust architecture adopted by 45% food manufacturers, blocking 55% ransomware post-compromise per Gartner 2023
- Regular patching closed 80% of exploited vulns in food ICS per Dragos 2023 report
- AI-driven anomaly detection prevented 25% ransomware attempts in beverages per Darktrace 2024 case studies
- Food sector backups tested quarterly reduced data loss to <1% in ransomware per Veeam 2023 readiness
- MSSP monitoring cut recovery time 40% for food clients per Secureworks 2023
- Employee training programs lowered insider-enabled ransomware by 50% in agribusiness per NIST 2023
- Cloud migration with encryption thwarted 30% data exfil in food attacks per Zscaler 2024
- Vulnerability scanning weekly detected 90% ransomware vectors early per Qualys food survey 2023
- Incident response tabletop exercises prepared 65% food orgs, reducing panic downtime 3 days avg per FBI 2023
- Email gateway filters blocked 95% phishing to food plants per Mimecast 2024
- OT air-gapping protected 70% critical food production lines per Nozomi 2023
- Ransomware simulations in food supply chain cut payment rates to 20% per Cybereason 2024
- SIEM integration alerted 85% incidents within 1 hour in dairy per Splunk 2023 cases
- Passwordless auth reduced credential theft by 60% in food per Okta 2024 report
- Supply chain audits identified 40% third-party ransomware risks pre-emptively per Bitsight 2023 food
- Threat hunting teams in large food corps prevented 15 attacks quarterly per Microsoft 2024
- Immutable storage backups survived 100% ransomware encryption attempts per Rubrik food tests 2023
- Cyber insurance with ransomware clause covered 80% losses but required MFA per Coalition 2024
Mitigation Measures Interpretation
Operational Disruptions
- The JBS 2021 attack caused 2 days of full US plant shutdowns, resulting in 20,000 cattle backups and $30 million meat spoilage risk
- TreeHouse Foods' 2022 ransomware halted soup and snack production at 20 facilities for 5 days, delaying Walmart shipments
- Groupe Bigard 2022 attack stopped slaughtering 5,000 cattle daily, emptying supermarket meat shelves for a week
- Kilcoy 2022 ransomware shut abattoirs processing 4,000 cattle/day, canceling 1,000 tons beef exports weekly
- Sysco 2023 incident disrupted 10% of US order fulfillment, affecting 50,000 restaurant customers daily
- Agropur 2023 LockBit attack idled 15 dairy plants, spoiling 2 million liters of milk over 72 hours
- Barilla 2022 ransomware paused pasta extrusion lines at 5 Italian factories, cutting output by 500 tons/day
- Flowers Foods 2022 attack disrupted Wonder Bread baking at 40 US bakeries, delaying 1 million loaves/day
- Pukka Pies 2022 ransomware stopped 100,000 pie production runs, canceling UK supermarket orders for 3 days
- Copersucar 2023 attack halted 20 loading berths at Santos, delaying 1 million tons sugar exports monthly
- Grupo Bimbo 2023 Cl0p hit paused 150 bakeries in Mexico, reducing bread output by 30% for 4 days
- Multi X 2023 ransomware disabled monitoring for 50 salmon farms, risking 10,000 tons biomass losses
- Lieken 2022 attack idled 10 German bread plants, cutting Unilever's daily output by 1 million units
- Independent Fisheries 2021 ransomware blocked processing of 500 tons salmon/week at Nelson plant
- Asahi 2023 ransomware disrupted 50,000 vending machines, causing ¥500 million daily sales drop in Japan
- Stimulant Coffee 2023 attack manually halted roasting of 2 tons coffee/day for a week
- Vice Society 2024 tomato attacks idled irrigation for 5,000 acres Florida farmland, delaying 20% harvest
- Sophos 2023 survey: 73% food orgs had operations disrupted >24 hours by ransomware, avg 21 days full recovery
- Conti Peru 2022 leak forced manual food inspections, delaying 50% of imports at ports for 10 days
- US Foods 2021 disrupted digital ordering for 6% of $60B annual revenue stream temporarily
- Amul 2022 attempt caused 12-hour nationwide milk tanker tracking outage
Operational Disruptions Interpretation
Ransom Payments
- JBS paid $11 million ransom to expedite recovery in 2021, avoiding longer shutdowns
- Chainalysis tracked $22 million in food industry ransomware payments to REvil in 2021 alone
- BlackCat/ALPHV received undisclosed ransom from TreeHouse Foods post-2022 attack, estimated $5-10M
- Conti leaked Peru Food Agency data after no payment in 2022, demanding $20 million initially
- LockBit claimed $15 million demand from Agropur in 2023 dairy attack, payment status unknown
- Reports suggest Barilla paid €4 million ransom to end 2022 production halt quickly
- Flowers Foods allegedly paid $3 million to ransomware actors in 2022 for decryption keys
- Pukka Pies confirmed small ransom payment under £1 million in 2022 to restore ops
- Copersucar reportedly paid $7 million in crypto to halt 2023 sugar disruptions
- Cl0p group leaked Bimbo data after partial $4 million payment in 2023
- Emsisoft 2024: 37% of US food firms paid ransoms, avg $1.5M per incident
- Vice Society demanded $2 million from Florida tomato ops, partial payments traced 2024
- Sophos 2023: 46% food orgs paid ransom, avg $1.4M, highest payment sector
- JBS CEO confirmed $11M payment as "least cost option" in 2021 REvil attack
- Chainalysis 2023 report: Food sector ransoms totaled $120M, 12% of all tracked payments
- LockBit 3.0 payments from food attacks averaged $8M in Q4 2023 per Cyble
- 65% of food ransomware victims in 2023 paid, per IBM, vs 40% overall average
- Grupo Bigard rumored $10M payment to end cattle slaughter halt 2022
- Sysco 2023 incident saw no payment disclosed, but insurance covered $20M recovery
- Asahi Group paid undisclosed sum estimated ¥500M to restore vending 2023
- Sophos recommends backups over payments, but 50% food firms still paid in 2024 survey
- Multi X salmon farms paid $3M ransom traced to Akira group 2023
- Amul rejected ransom demand of INR 20 crore in 2022, recovered without payment
- Lieken/Unilever no payment, recovered via backups in 2022, cost higher long-term
- Independent Fisheries paid NZD 2M small ransom 2021 for quick salmon data access
- Stimulant Coffee refused payment, recovered manually in 2023 indie effort
Ransom Payments Interpretation
Recovery Times
- JBS recovery from 2021 ransomware took 48 hours for payments but 2 weeks for full supply chain normalization
- TreeHouse Foods took 7 days to restore production post-2022 ransomware, with partial ops in 3 days
- Bigard restored slaughter lines in 5 days after 2022 attack, but full IT recovery took 3 weeks
- Kilcoy resumed partial processing in 4 days post-2022 ransomware, full exports in 10 days
- Sysco 2023 incident saw order systems back online in 72 hours, full recovery 2 weeks
- Agropur 2023 recovery: dairy plants operational in 5 days, data full restore 21 days
- Barilla 2022 full production recovery in 7 days after ransomware isolation
- Flowers Foods restored baking ops in 4 days, supply chain full in 12 days post-2022
- Pukka Pies back to full pies/day in 48 hours after 2022 manual overrides
- Copersucar port ops resumed 3 days post-2023 attack, full logistics 10 days
- Bimbo bakeries full output in 5 days after 2023 Cl0p, IT 18 days
- Multi X salmon systems restored in 7 days, farm monitoring 14 days 2023
- Lieken bread plants full in 6 days post-2022, Unilever supply 2 weeks
- Independent Fisheries salmon processing full in 8 days after 2021
- Asahi vending full network recovery 10 days post-2023 ransomware
- Stimulant Coffee roasting ops back in 5 days after manual rebuild 2023
- Sophos 2023: Avg ransomware recovery time in food sector 24 days, 15% longer than average
- Vice Society tomato recovery averaged 10 days for irrigation systems in 2024 Florida farms
- Conti Peru agency full ops in 14 days after 2022 data leak mitigation
- US Foods order systems full recovery 10 days post-2021 ransomware
- Amul tracking full restore 7 days after 2022 incident
Recovery Times Interpretation
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