Ransomware Gangs Increase Pressure on the Agri-Food Industry

Jonathan Braley, director of Food and Ag-ISAC, a cyber information-sharing organization for the agri-food industry, stated on May 1, 2025, that ransomware continues to increasingly target this sector. Organizations in the field reportedly suffered 84 ransomware attacks in the first half of 2025—more than twice as many as in the first half of 2024.

To obtain this figure, Food and Ag-ISAC combined data from open-source sites, dark web monitoring, member contributions, and statistics from professional federations.

According to Jonathan Braley, the increase in incidents began in the last quarter of 2024 and is largely due to the Cl0p ransomware gang’s hack of a file-sharing site, which led to numerous attacks. Other gangs, such as RansomHub and Akira, are also said to be “relentlessly” targeting the agri-food industry.

Jonathan Braley also criticized the fact that many victims conceal the ransomware attacks they suffer, preventing an accurate assessment of the extent of the problem for the sector.