Ransomware is big business—and you can’t afford to play the game!
A cyberattack not only creates costly downtime but also can destroy IP, cause food safety issues and just be plain expensive—whether or not you pay the ransom
The global damage due to ransomware attacks is expected to reach $20 billion by 2021 with a business attack occurring every 11 seconds, according to Cybercrime Magazine. Within the last week or so of writing this article, Canon worldwide fell victim to a ransomware attack. Most of Canon’s websites were down as I discovered when I couldn’t update my Digital Photo Professional camera software. Those who stored photos (not me!) on image.canon.com (Canon’s cloud) lost all their images, though Canon says the ransomware wasn’t to blame. Nevertheless, think twice before you store ANY data in the cloud without a backup “at home.”
Unfortunately, most businesses—including food—don’t like to share any information about attacks they’ve sustained, hence that’s why the statistics seem like they’re all over the map. However, the industry could certainly learn by companies sharing their experiences. On June 27, 2017, Mondelēz International suffered a global cybersecurity event (Food Engineering, February 2019), which affected a significant portion of global sales and cost $84 million to resolve, says Mondelēz’s 2017 Annual Report. The company says it continues to enhance its cybersecurity efforts to minimize risks.