FBI Warns of Continued Ransomware Attacks Targeting the Food and Agriculture Sectors

FBI Warns of Continued Ransomware Attacks Working to disrupt organizations involved with the United State’s food supply chain, ransomware gangs and their affiliates are the focus of the FBI’s latest warning to be vigilant.

Earlier this month, the Cyber Division of the FBI issued a Private Industry Notification (PIN) notifying the food and agriculture sectors to be aware of strings of ransomware attacks designed to “disrupt operations, cause financial loss, and negatively impact the food supply chain.”

The notice cites size examples of ransomware attacks impacting the Food and Agriculture sectors dating from November of 2020 through July of 2021. It included, “food and agriculture businesses victimized by ransomware suffer significant financial loss resulting from ransom payments, loss of productivity, and remediation costs.”

The FBI also offered mitigation recommendations that include:

Regular backups with an established recovery plan
Use of MFA, Antivirus, and VPN technologies
Good password hygiene
Auditing the use of administrative accounts
Regular use of Security Awareness Training to “provide users with training on information security principles and techniques as well as overall emerging cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities.”

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