"Salad Shortages Reported Following Ransomware Attack on Agricultural Giant Dole"
A ransomware attack on the agricultural giant Dole forced the shutdown of production facilities in the US, resulting in salad shortages. The ransomware attack's form was not disclosed, and no ransomware gang has claimed responsibility for the attack. Officially, Dole claims that the impact of the attack on its operations was minimal, but that is not what the company told stores when the ransomware attack first hit. According to CNN, citing a Dole memo provided to retailers on February 10, a temporary closure of production plants resulted in a halt in food shipments to grocery shops. With operations disrupted and delivery halted, there have been multiple reports of lettuce and salad shortages on grocery shelves. Morten Gammelgaard, co-founder of ransomware protection company BullWall A/S, pointed out that the Dole ransomware attack demonstrates how the just-in-time nature of food supply chains makes companies especially vulnerable to financially driven cyberattacks such as ransomware. This article continues to discuss the impact of the Dole ransomware attack.