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Amidst Surge in Ransomware Attacks, FBI Warns Food and Agriculture Sector

 

The FBI has published a private industry advisory on Wednesday, alerting the food and agriculture sectors that they have been under active attack by ransomware organizations. The cybercriminals' approach to firms in this area is unremarkable; the methods and procedures they deploy are well-known. 

According to the FBI, ransomware gangs want to "disrupt operations, cause financial loss, and negatively impact the food supply chain." 

"Ransomware may impact businesses across the sector, from small farms to large producers, processors and manufacturers, and markets and restaurants. Cybercriminal threat actors exploit network vulnerabilities to exfiltrate data and encrypt systems in a sector that is increasingly reliant on smart technologies, industrial control systems, and internet-based automation systems," the FBI said. 

Food and agriculture enterprises that are victims of ransomware incur massive financial losses as a result of ransom alongside suffering productivity losses and remediation costs. Organizations may potentially lose proprietary information and personally identifying information as a result of a ransomware operation, as well as suffer negative publicity. 

Many of the world's largest food firms now use a variety of IoT devices and smart technology in business processes. According to the FBI, bigger agricultural firms are attacked since they can manage to pay bigger ransoms, but smaller entities are targeted because they cannot afford high-quality cybersecurity. 

"From 2019 to 2020, the average ransom demand doubled and the average cyber insurance payout increased by 65 percent from 2019 to 2020. The highest observed ransom demand in 2020 was $23 million, according to a private industry report. According to the 2020 IC3 Report, IC3 received 2,474 complaints identified as ransomware with adjusted losses of over $29.1 million across all sectors," the FBI said. 

In an industry that is heavily dependent on smart technologies, industrial control systems, and web automation systems, cyber attackers use networking weaknesses to steal information data and encrypt systems. 

According to the organization, cybercriminals employ a myriad of methods to attack individuals with ransomware like email phishing operations, Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) vulnerabilities, and software vulnerabilities; these are the most popular method of attack.

Zomato successfully tests its drone technology

E-commerce companies and food-delivery platforms are globally believed to be among the first adopters of drone-based delivery.

Zomato, the online ordering and food delivery platform, on Wednesday announced that it has successfully tested its drone delivery technology. The test, which was conducted using a hybrid drone, was a part of the company's attempts to reduce the time taken to make a food delivery to its customers.

The first test saw Zomato make a drone-based food package delivery under restricted conditions, covering 5 km in 10 minutes and at peak speed of 80 kmph.

"The drone was tested last week at one of the remote sites approved by the DGCA. Such tests are done at very remote sites which are especially designed to conduct such tests," Zomato told IANS.

It comes months after Gurgaon-headquartered firm had acquired Lucknow-based drone startup TechEagle to reduce food delivery times and solve other issues like pollution and traffic. Zomato also revealed that it is forming a consortium as per Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) guidelines to carry out experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operations.

However, the food aggregator did not reveal the exact location where the drone delivered the package.

According to the notification issued by Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on May 13, interested companies have been asked to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to the DGCA for conducting experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations (BVLOS) of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS)/Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS).

Currently, while regulations prohibit payload carriage on drones along with disallowing drone operations outside visual line of sight, the government — while announcing rules for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in August last — had said that the norms will be evolved with time as and when companies are able to exhibit newer technologies.

"The only possible way to reduce the average 30 minutes to 15 minutes is to take the aerial route. Roads are not efficient for very fast deliveries.