Page 1 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Vol 25. No. 8 August 2021 Australian Pork Newspaper PO Box 162 Wynnum 4178 Phone (07) 3286 1833 Email ben@collins.media
Cybercriminals targeting Australian agriculture
APL’s digital transformation
Point of View
by MARGO ANDRAE CEO
AS we begin the second year of the Australian Pork Limited 2020- 2025 strategic plan, we bring a new focus – that of delivery.
Instead, we send a single e-newsletter, the APL Update, to over 4000 industry stake- holders.
A nd we have kicked off the new year with a bang, with the launch of our new industry website, australianpork.com.au
This email includes market reports, media clips, an EAD update and critical industry informa- tion.
While launching a web- site may seem straight- forward, we’ve gone the extra mile to make sure users get what they came for.
duplicated, and worse, incorrect or inconsistent.
channel from APL. Their remit spans social media, websites, publica- tions, events, e-newslet-
The APL Update has open rates among APL members averaging 49 percent – the industry standard being 23 per- cent.
Many thanks go to the 50 plus industry mem- bers who were involved in our user interviews over the past few months, and to more than 150 people who completed our online surveys.
When launching the strategic plan in June last year, we restructured the APL team to deliver our new ambitious direction.
ters and media liaison.
A centralised team brings more power to our messages by having one voice to stakeholders – be they the community, media, our producers or
These are only a snap- shot of what we’ve de- livered over the past 12 months in communica- tions, and we are far from done.
This research shaped a new direction for the site, making it easier to navi- gate, search and read.
Instead of having com- munications staff sitting across divisions, the team has been centralised to oversee perceptions of our industry with a single voice.
government.
The team has been fo-
Even though the new website is live, over the coming months we will be creating more content targeting the broader community.
But the website is only part of the much larger communications over- haul we’ve been working on for a period of time.
Headed by commu- nications director Julia Unwin, the APL com- munications team is made up of five team members who oversee every communication
cussed on streamlining our communications over the past year, and producers will have no- ticed we no longer send out printed newslet- ters and multiple emails throughout the week.
This will bring more visibility to the industry and explain what we do, and importantly why.
When I joined APL in 2019, each division – marketing, research and innovation, as well as policy and corporate services – managed their own communications in different ways.
I urge you to visit our site, sign up to the APL Update e-newsletter and please, continue to share your thoughts.
Multiple monthly and quarterly printed news- letters and producer notices were sent out each week with various spokespeople engaged with the media.
The range of digital communication touch- points was also prolific, with multiple e-newslet- ters, social media chan- nels and over 10 indi- vidual websites.
While there is always a role for different chan- nels to speak to different audiences, an audit con- ducted in early 2020 showed content was often
APL kicked off the year with the launch of its new industry website, australi anpork.com.au
RANSOMWARE, a type of malware, is an increas- ingly popular type of ex- tortionist cyberattack, which encrypts data on infected computers or completely locks you out and holds your data or device hostage, with the attackers offering a decryption or return of access in exchange for a ransom.
US and Australia, where they supply an estimated 25-30 percent of the coun- try’s red meat, including to major supermarket chains Coles and Aldi.
proposes the creation of a ‘ransomware payment notification scheme’ that covers corporations and all federal government entities, as well as state and territory government agencies.
According to Avast, the number of ransom- ware attacks in Australia increased by 10 percent during the height of the pandemic in March and April 2020, compared to January and February 2020.
Another major ransom- ware attack in February 2020, saw wool brokers across Australia and New Zealand severely disrupted when Talman software’s IT system, underpinning auctions and exports, was encrypted by cybercrimi- nals.
However, this won’t nec- essarily stop all ransom- wareattacks.
Ransomware attacks in Australia have continued targeting the country’s industry, with $680,715 reported lost to Aus- tralian Competition and Consumer Commission Scamwatch this year, not including companies who haven’t disclosed their ran- somware payments.
This attack resulted in wool sales being halted for eight days and an esti- mated 70,000 bales being deferred for the sector that has sales of up to $80 mil- lion a week.
Though you may only ever hear of ransomware attacks on large businesses such as JBL and Talman in the media, small and medium agriculture busi- nesses should still be very aware of ransomware and the potential vulnerabili- ties in their business infra- structure.
One of the more recent attacks was on the world’s largest meat processor JBS, which was attacked by ransomware in late May this year, resulting in 47 of their processing and packing plants ceasing operations.
These ransomware at- tacks on such important Australian agricultural sectors and supply chains show how vital it is for au- thorities to defend markets against cyber threats.
What to do for effective cybersecurity
This had damning con- sequences to JBS in the
In late June, Shadow Minister of Cyber Secu- rity Tim Watts tabled a new bill in Federal Parlia- ment called the Ransom- ware Payments Bill, which
In the case of a ransom- ware attack, businesses should definitely not con- sider paying the ransom or negotiating with the criminals behind the at- tack, as making the pay-
The meat processing giant ended up paying a ransom of over $14 million to regain access to their IT systems.
It will require entities that make ransomware payments to notify the Australian Cyber Se- curity Centre and allow the centralised collection of information and other actionable intelligence by our law enforcement and signals intelligence agen- cies to combat ransom- ware attacks.
Talman refused to pay the ransom, choosing to replace the software.
* continued P2
Phone: 07 4697 3344 • Fax 07 4697 3532
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