Hackers have a devastating new target

A major gas pipeline. Dozens of government agencies. A Florida city's water supply. And now, one of the world's top meat producers.

The last few months have seen a sharp rise in cyberattacks, often disrupting products and services that are key to our everyday lives. Many of those attacks have used ransomware, a set of tools that lets hackers gain access to computer systems and disrupt or lock them until they get paid. Ransomware is not new. But there is a growing trend of hackers targeting critical infrastructure and physical business operations, which makes the attacks more lucrative for bad actors and more devastating for victims. And with the rise of remote work during the pandemic, significant vulnerabilities have been revealed that only make it easier to carry out such attacks.