Growth in AI, automation, and digitization put cybersecurity at the center of food security.
Startups, investors, and media outlets like this one love to talk about the potential benefits of digitizing agrifood. Faster decision-making! Bigger yields! Less money spent on labor!
We’re not so great at highlighting the cyber threats created when the entire food system gets digitized—threats that, if realized at the extreme end, could be catastrophic to food security around the world.
Case in point: Just this week, hackers forced the temperature of freezers and fridges up to 122 degrees fahrenheit at several hundred French supermarkets, causing food spoilage and fires.
<p>It’s just the latest in Ransomware
~$31M (JPY 5B lost revenue)30 factories disrupted; ordering, shipment & production systems down for months; company refused ransom, 1.9m records potentially exposedMar 2024
Duvel Moortgat Brewery
Belgium / USA
Ransomware
Undisclosed
Production halted at Belgian and US sites; operations disrupted for several days; 88 GB of data claimed stolenJun 2024
Federated Co-operatives Ltd.
Canada
Undisclosed
Undisclosed
Grocery inventory shortages across Western Canada; bread, frozen goods & produce affected; systems offline 2+ weeksJun 2025
United Natural Foods (UNFI)
USA
Social engineering + Ransomware
$350–400M (lost sales)
All 53 distribution centers disabled; 30,000+ retailers affected incl. Whole Foods; systems offline for weeksJul 2026
Nichirei Logistics
Japan
Undisclosed
Undisclosed
140 refrigerated distribution centers disrupted; KFC Japan (1,300+ restaurants), Aeon, Kura Sushi, others impactedMay 2021
JBS Foods
USA / Australia
Ransomware
$11M ransom paid
47 Australian and 9 US sites halted for five days; triggered federal sector security warningsNov 2023
Farmer Vital Bircher
Switzerland
Ransomware
Undisclosed
Herd monitoring systems offline; calf died, cow euthanized — first confirmed livestock death from a cyberattackFeb 2023
Dole Foods
USA
Ransomware
~$10.5M (Q1 losses)
North American operations shutdown; temporary plant closuresJul 2023
Campbell Soup Co.
USA
<p>Advances in farming and food production technology have created a playing field for hackers that arguably didn’t exist a decade ago. Little dialogue about running off secure systems exists for this group. In the US, the FBI and CISA have both
