Maple Leaf Foods confirms cyberattack, will not pay ransomware gang

Maple Leaf Foods has confirmed that it has been struck by ransomware, but it has also stated that it will not pay for any ransom to have the malware lifted from its systems.

The packaged meats company’s confirmation comes after the Black Basta ransomware gang listed Maple Leaf Foods as one of its victims. A security industry source told IT World Canada that a listing on the gang’s website appeared last week which contained multiple screenshots of different documents that were allegedly copied from Maple Leaf Foods. While copies of the stolen files were unveiled on the ransomware website, the exact amount of data stolen was not specified.

IT World Canada reached out to Maple Leaf Foods for a statement and to confirm if Black Basta was responsible for the ransomware attack, and a representative said that the company “won’t dignify criminals by naming them.”

“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.”

“We’re sorry this occurred and apologize for the frustration and challenges it may cause,” the representative continued. “We have invested significant resources into the security of our systems and take the confidentiality and security of the information in our possession very seriously. We are being vigilant in our response, taking purposeful action to do what we believe is right to minimize any disruption.”

The Maple Leaf Foods representative added that it is providing its staff with two years of credit monitoring services.

“The illegal acts that compromised our system and potentially put information at risk is intolerable and our company will not pay ransom to criminals,” the representative’s statement continued. “We are asking responsible people – including those in the media – not to entertain any ‘leads’ they get from stolen or compromised data and not to contact anyone based on illegally-obtained information.”

The ransomware attack may be related to another cyber incident Maple Leaf Foods suffered earlier this month, IT World Canada reported. The IT outage caused by the previous incident led to some operational and service disruptions across the company’s various sites, a representative explained.