Americold, a leading cold storage and logistics company based in Atlanta, filed an incident report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding a cybersecurity incident that occurred on April 25, 2023, relating to their computer network being breached. Americold controls 250 warehouses across the world, a large majority of which are used by food producers, distributors, and retailers. The company is the largest publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on the ownership, operation, acquisitions, and development of temperature-controlled warehouses. In response to the attack, Americold was able to contain the intrusion and shut down their network to secure their system as well as avoid further disruption to non-contained areas. One (1) customer alleged that the company’s “phones [were] down and they had the truck entrance barricaded off with the main entrance gates shut.” The company sent out a memo requesting that all inbound deliveries be rescheduled until further notice and that only the most critical outbound deliveries be continued, such as those having the potential to reach an expiration date. While the company hasn’t released a statement about the incident nor confirmed this to be a ransomware attack, Americold noted that they are assessing what data can be recovered while they focus on rebuilding impacted systems. It should be noted that there has been an observed increase in cyberattacks on food and beverage supply chain companies within the past few years, with fifty-two (52) reported ransomware attacks in 2022. This incident is the second cyberattack Americold has faced, as their last event occurred in late 2020. Dragos CEO Rob Lee stated that the “hyperconnectivity and scalability of automation is what’s allowing ransomware authors to do what they’re doing,” and that threat actors are targeting companies that cannot function when their digital systems go offline, taking advantage of companies’ digital transformation projects.