Astral Foods suffered a cyberattack on March 16, causing over $1 million in losses and delivery delays. The incident prompted the activation of disaster recovery protocols, although no confidential data was compromised. The attack is part of a growing trend targeting agricultural institutions, with potential earnings affected significantly.
South Africa’s largest chicken producer, Astral Foods, incurred losses exceeding $1 million due to a cyberattack on March 16, which disrupted deliveries and processing. The company activated its disaster recovery protocols in response to the incident, which affected various sectors including chicken production, egg sales, and animal feed manufacturing.
The cyberattack led to significant downtime impacting customer deliveries, resulting in an estimated loss of 20 million rand. Fortunately, as reported, all business units have resumed normal operations, and no sensitive data of customers or stakeholders was compromised during the attack.
Despite the recovery, the company anticipates a decline in earnings per share for the financial period ending next week, attributed to the week-long operational outages. Astral Foods previously reported annual revenue exceeding $1 billion for 2024.
The specifics of the cyberattack’s nature or the perpetrators remain undisclosed, and no ransomware group has claimed responsibility. The agriculture sector is particularly vulnerable to ransomware attacks, with many institutions willing to pay ransoms to safeguard their operations. Last year, the Food and Agriculture-Information Sharing and Analysis Center identified 167 ransomware incidents targeting the sector.
Notable food producers such as JBS, Dole, Sysco, and Mondelez have faced similar attacks in recent years, illustrating a concerning trend. In 2021, a single farm suffered losses of $9 million following a ransomware breach. Recent reports also indicate that the USDA faced an attack exploiting a file transfer tool, compromising significant industry information.
The cyberattack on Astral Foods underscores the increasing vulnerability of agricultural sectors to cyber threats. Despite normal operations resuming, the incident has highlighted the potential economic impacts and the importance of strengthened cybersecurity measures in safeguarding essential food production and distribution systems.
Original Source: therecord.media
