By Ashwani Mishra, Editor-Technology, 63SATS
From coops to codes, cyberattacks are now ruffling feathers in the food supply chain—one poultry farm at a time.
It started with the morning rush—trucks lined up, crates full of processed poultry waiting to be dispatched. But on March 16, 2025, something wasn’t right at Astral Foods, one of South Africa’s largest poultry producers.
Screens went black. Processing lines stalled. Panic set in. No, it wasn’t a power outage or a labour strike. It was a cyberattack.
Feathers Ruffled: A $1 Million Hit
By the time the company had reined in the breach, the damage was done: a backlog of deliveries, halted operations, and a projected loss of nearly $1.1 million.
This figure includes not just the downtime but also the costs incurred while scrambling to resume normalcy: overtime payments, spoilage, missed deliveries, and reputational bruises.
The cyberattack on Astral Foods struck deeper than just its IT infrastructure—it hit the core of its poultry processing operations. Although the company moved swiftly to activate disaster recovery protocols, the damage was done. The ripple effects of the shutdown had already spread, leaving behind a trail of delays and operational chaos.
In an industry where timing is everything and margins are razor-thin, even a few hours of disruption can snowball into catastrophic losses.
This wasn’t the first time poultry producers were under cyber siege. And it certainly won’t be the last.
Not Just Chicken Feed: Global Pattern Emerges
Astral’s ordeal is part of a growing trend in food and agribusiness cybersecurity incidents.
Just a year earlier in March 2024, Finland’s HKScan, another meat and poultry company, experienced a data breach. While their production lines kept humming, personal data might have been compromised. The attack went undetected for weeks.
Even more dramatic was the 2021 ransomware attack on JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker. It brought international operations in the U.S. and Australia to a standstill. JBS ended up paying $11 million in ransom to the Russian hacker group REvil—just to get its systems back online.
These incidents signal a chilling shift: food, once a “low-tech” industry, has become a juicy target for high-tech criminals.
The Invisible Threat Inside the Coop
So why poultry?
Because poultry processing today isn’t just about cages and coops—it’s about code. Modern poultry operations rely heavily on automation, logistics software, IoT sensors, and data-driven forecasting. The very systems that ensure efficiency are also gateways for cyberattacks.
A misplaced click on a phishing email, an unpatched software vulnerability, or poor segmentation between IT and OT (operational technology) networks is all it takes. Once inside, attackers can lock systems, corrupt data, or simply paralyze logistics.
The Cost: More Than Just Numbers
Behind the technical jargon and financial losses are real people. Delivery drivers were left idle, factory workers uncertain if they’d be paid, and farmers worried about delayed shipments of live birds. In some instances, even animal welfare can be compromised, as processing halts lead to overcrowding and stress in live poultry units.
To its credit, Astral Foods responded quickly. Its disaster recovery plan kicked in, operations were gradually restored, and the company maintained transparency with stakeholders. But as food systems become more interconnected, reactive responses aren’t enough.
Proactive cybersecurity measures—from employee training to segmentation of IT/OT networks, endpoint monitoring, and regular penetration testing—are now as essential as quality control in food safety.
In Finland, HKScan also pledged deeper investment into its cybersecurity infrastructure following its incident. Meanwhile, JBS’ $11 million payout serves as a painful lesson in the cost of inadequate cyber preparedness.
Cyber is the New Salmonella
What salmonella was to the poultry industry in the past, cyber threats are today—silent, invasive, and potentially devastating.
If even a few minutes of downtime can turn chickens into deadweight and wipe millions off a balance sheet, then it’s high time food producers prioritized cybersecurity like they do biosecurity.
Because while a chicken may not care about ransomware, the farmer, the factory worker, and the family expecting dinner certainly do.
