What Would Synlait Be Worth to Fonterra or a2 Milk?
Speculation of a possible joint move by Fonterra and a2 Milk to buy Synlait raises a much bigger strategic question, says agribusiness expert Dr Nic Lees.
"We have a range of measures in place to keep the co-operative and our data environment safe," a spokesman told Dairy News.
However, the co-operative did not say whether it was ever been on the receiving end of a cyber attack, either here or overseas.
The co-op's comments follow independent research from Kordia that revealed that 28% of New Zealand large organisations consider AI-generated cyber attacks to be a top threat to their businesses, despite only 6% of cyber breaches being attributed to an AI-generated attack.
State-owned enterprise Kordia surveyed 295 businesses with more than 50 employees as part of its annual New Zealand Business Cyber Security Report.
The report shows that almost two thirds (59%) of New Zealand businesses were subjected to a cyber-attack or incident in 2024, 43% of all cyber attacks and incidents were caused by email phishing and almost 1 in 10 businesses compromised by a cyber incident paid a ransom or extortion demand.
Alastair Miller, principal security consultant at Kordia-owned Aura Information Security says the findings reflect the proliferation of AI technology, resulting in an increase in social engineering and phishing attacks against businesses.
"AI has lowered the cost of entry and time investment needed by cybercriminals to craft, refine and adapt social engineering campaigns. As a result, we're seeing a surge of businesses reporting attacks involving sophisticated email phishing, something that we expect will continue to increase."
Agribusinesses aroung the world have been targeted by hackers. One of the biggest cases involved the world's largest meatpacking company, JBS Foods. A ransomware attack in May 2021 halted operations at 47 sites in Australia and nine in the US for five days. The shutdown threatened meat supply chains, with temporary staff layoffs at some plants and reports from farmers that their shipments of livestock were cancelled. JBS Foods paid an $US11 million ransom in Bitcoin to resolve the issue.
Miller says Kordia's survey reveals that financial gain is a clear motivator behind attacks on Kiwi businesses.
"Money is the motivator. That's why it's unsurprising to see stolen personal information, IP, commercially sensitive data and business disruption, amongst the list of impacts faced because of a cyber incident. These are all things that cyber criminals can leverage to put pressure on businesses to pay a blackmail or extortion demand," Miller says.
The report notes that despite this, many of the businesses surveyed are still not implementing basic cyber security as a top risk for the company's board.
The Rise of AI
The Kordia report reveals the extent to which AI is reshaping behaviours and attitudes around cyber security for New Zealand businesses, as well as the evolving nature of cybercrime.
“AI-generated cyber-attacks are the new frontier of cybercrime,” explains Alastair Miller. “The democratisation of increasingly sophisticated AI technology has catapulted the effectiveness and speed of cybercrime to extraordinary new heights.”
Miller points to the recent uptake of large language models in AI-generated phishing attacks as an example. Not only has it enabled greater personalisation and adaptability by mimicking writing styles or contextualising messages in a timely manner, but it’s also enabled greater levels of automation, resulting in a highly scalable and incredibly efficient tactic for cybercriminals.
Of the 59% of respondents who said their business suffered a cyber-attack or incident in 2024, 43% of those were compromised by an email phishing attack.
“Those numbers are high, and we know that they can be attributed in large part to a rise of AI-generated cybercrime tactics.”
