NIGERIA – Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, owner of Nigeria’s iconic food brand “Golden Penny,” has received the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification for information security.

As with other ISO management system standards, the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification is the most widely recognized global best practice standard for securing assets such as financial information, intellectual property, employee information, and information entrusted to third parties.

“We are truly excited by this achievement and what it means for our consumers and the food industry at large.

“Indeed, the ISO certification in information security demonstrates our long- term commitment to implementing an effective cybersecurity framework that supports our operations and protects our goal of providing food to millions of Nigerian families, while creating wealth for investors,” said Omoboyede Olusanya, the Group Managing Director of FMN.

With this certification, FMN joins a select group of companies in the country that have taken the bold step of assuring its stakeholders that it has defined and implemented an effective and best-in-class information security process.

“In obtaining the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification, we have gained a better understanding of the group’s risk exposure and responded by implementing strategies that improved and reinforced our security management processes.

“We believe that these measures will now safeguard our digital activities, even as the group continues to focus exclusively on its purpose of feeding the nation every day,” said Serge Yao, the Group Head of IT Management at FMN.

FNM has taken the necessary precaution to ensure of its safety digitally as the food and beverage industry has proven to be a vulnerable target for cyber-crimes.

A recent ransomware attack was undertaken on the world’s biggest meat processing company, JBS, forcing it to shut down several plants in the U.S. and Australia, which briefly rattled beef markets.

But the plants soon came back online, however the company had to part with US$11 million in ransom to the hackers.

While the JBS hack caught headlines, a closer review of recent cyberattacks on food system suggests that the incident is no anomaly.

In recent years, hackers have managed to breach the operations of numerous prominent food and beverage companies—including a major beer manufacturer (Molson Coors), a distillery (Campari), a fast-food chain (Wendy’s), and a snacking giant (Mondelez)—in some instances severely disrupting production and causing millions of dollars in damages.

The attacks have brought to the fore the importance of the food and agriculture sector and the need to protect its infrastructure from such attacks.

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