Cyberattack shut down North American production plants of Dole food giant in February

Global mega-food conglomerate Dole earlier this month shuttered its production plants in North America amid an unexpected cyberattack, internal company memos showed this week. 

Emmanual Lazopoulos, the senior vice president of the company's fresh vegetables division, told retailers on Feb. 10 that Dole was "in the midst of a Cyber Attack," and that the corporation had "shut down our systems throughout North America."

The attack was previously unreported but broke into media this week when company memos leaked to the press. 

Multiple sources told media outlets that the attack consisted of a ransomware package. Dole in a statement on Thursday said it had "moved quickly to contain the threat and engaged leading third-party cybersecurity experts, who have been working in partnership with Dole’s internal teams to remediate the issue and secure systems."

"While continuing to investigate the scope of the incident, the impact to Dole operations has been limited," the company added.