SUPPLY CHAIN
“ The increased use of AI technology can actually make companies more vulnerable to a wide variety of cyberattacks ”
SEBASTIAN REITER MCKINSEY ASSOCIATE PARTNER
Cyberattack scenarios more vital than ever But there is one area in which scenario planning is becoming ever-more important to businesses : cyberattacks . The Association for Supply Chain Management ( ASCM ) has made a benchmark tool available to its members . Upon launching the tool , the ASCM revealed that cyberattacks were cited as a “ dominant threat ” by 46 per cent of its members , and that cyberattacks are the top concern in the consumer electronics sector .
It offered JBS Foods as an example . The Brazil-based company is one of the world ’ s largest international meat processors , and in May this year it was forced to pay the equivalent of £ 7.8m in ransom to put an end to a major cyberattack that temporarily shut down a number of its operations in Australia , Canada and the US . The payment was reportedly made using Bitcoin after plants had come back online . JBS said at the time it was necessary to pay in order to protect its customers .
The ASCM also revealed that ransomware attacks are up 400 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels , and that there were 143 incidents , and nearly 1.1 million records breached worldwide , in April 2021 alone . It said that this year it expects cyberattacks to cost organizations $ 6 trillion globally .
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