Dole plc confirmed being a target of a ransomware attack

In a recent report, the food distributor giant, Dole plc, confirmed that a ransomware attack had hit its network, disrupting daily operations.

The company’s statement last February 22 shared limited information about the incident. Still, they assured customers and partners that they are now investigating its scope and highlighting that the impact of it has already been controlled.

Dole plc also engaged with third-party cybersecurity teams to work with their internal team to remediate the discovered cybersecurity incident and secure the affected systems. Authorities and law enforcement agencies have also been contacted to be informed about the issue.

 

Security experts are concerned about the ransomware attack’s impact on Dole plc.

 

The food distributor giant serves millions of customers worldwide and employs about 38,000 staff, who could be affected by the ransomware attack if not immediately contained. Furthermore, security experts presume that the company’s annual revenue of billions of dollars had been an attractive motivation for the threat actors to strike them.

As it seemed that the company’s statement had downplayed the ransomware incident, separate security researchers found that its production plants in North America had been shut down and shipment deliveries to several grocery branches were halted.

Nonetheless, the food distributor giant addressed this issue in a memorandum and confirmed it to their partners.

Some grocery store branches have been raising concerns about receiving supply shortages on their shelves from Dole plc for over a week. Some analysts presume that these supply shortages could be caused by the ransomware attack, although it is yet to be confirmed.

A “Manual Backup Program” is a crisis management protocol the food distributor giant assured their partners to implement to address the cybersecurity incident. The backup program will help the company return to normal operations and resume supply production and shipments. However, people must expect the process to be gradually slow.

Dole plc refused to provide additional details about the incident outside their publicly released statement.