Maple Leaf Foods Won’t Pay Cyber Ransom

Dec. 5, 2022

Confidential corporate data was apparently stolen by cybercriminals.

Maple Leaf Foods has declared that it will not pay any ransom to resolve a recent cyberattack that apparently stole confidential information.

A cyber gang calling itself Black Basta claimed credit for an attack on Maple Leaf Foods in a posting in late November, according to IT World Canada. The Black Basta hackers have posted screenshots of financial information and other confidential Maple Leaf data reaped in the attack in an apparent attempt to extort the company.

Maple Leaf Foods said in a comment to IT World Canada, “Unfortunately, we know that the people behind this incident were able to gain unauthorized access to some of our data, and they are threatening to release it unless we pay a ransom, which we will not do.”

It was unclear whether this cyberattack was the same, or related to, one that Maple Leaf reported in early November. At that time, all Maple Leaf said was that it expected “some operational and service disruptions” as a result of that attack.

Black Basta claims to have stolen information from more than 100 sources, including Sobeys, the Canadian food retail giant, according to IT World Canada.

About the Author

Pan Demetrakakes | Senior Editor

Pan has written about the food and beverage industry for more than 25 years. His areas of coverage have included formulations, processing, packaging, marketing and retailing. Pan worked for Food Processing Magazine for six years in the 1990s, where he was operations editor (his current role), touring dozens of food plants of every description. He has also worked for Packaging and Food & Beverage Packaging magazines, the latter as chief editor, during which he won three ASBPE awards. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in communications.