A notice sent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns companies in the food and agriculture sector to be aware of potential ransomware attacks intent on disrupting supply chains. These ransomware groups aim to “disrupt operations, cause financial loss, and negatively impact the food supply chain.”, targeting everything from small farms to large producers, manufacturers, markets, and restaurants.

This warning was published Wednesday following trends that signified another slew of attacks incoming this Labor Day Weekend. Since most staff, IT specialists specifically, will be out for vacation this leaves companies much more vulnerable to an attack over the long weekend. The majority of attacks in 2021 alone have taken place on a holiday weekend.The deputy national security adviser of the White House, Anne Neuberger, spoke to the press on Thursday warning companies to actively investigate for signs of a breach before the weekend and develop a preemptive strategy to protect themselves.

Measures that can be taken include:

• having backups
• network segmentation 
• multi factor authentication
• proactive monitoring of remote access/RDP logs. 

Ransomware groups continue to target critical sectors, of which the food and agriculture sector is a huge security concern due to the lack of a governing body over the sector’s cybersecurity. Currently the gap in cybersecurity measures for the sector haunts food and agricultural businesses. A large number of agricultural businesses still rely on outdated systems or are far too relaxed in their security measures making them more susceptible to an attack.  Businesses should heed the warning or face being the next victim of these ransomware groups.

Source: ZDNet

optimizationsGoogle updated his smart bidding AI to make it more intuitive to serve better marketers’ needs.

Top signals changes. SEM meets SEO! Advertisers can use top signals for search campaigns using Target ROAS and Maximize conversion value. “Currently, you can only view top signals for campaigns that use Target CPA and Maximize conversions” but that’s expanded now, explains Neera Thavornvanit, Product Manager, Google Ads.

Seasonality adjustments can be made at the manager account level. Smart Bidding used to take seasonality into account, but there could be events where advertisers expect big changes in conversion rates, such as big sales or product launches. “To make these adjustments even easier to use, you can now set them at the manager account level instead of creating them for each individual account,” said Thavornvanit.

Max conversions optimizations. Google Ads is introducing new opportunities on the Recommendations page. “These recommendations will show for eligible Search campaigns and can help you get more conversion value within your budget,” according to the announcement.

Target Impression Share simulators now available. Smart Bidding simulators were created to help you estimate campaign performance. “This tool was previously available for conversion and click-based bid strategies, and we are now expanding support to Search campaigns using Target Impression Share,” announced Thavornvanit. You can now use the simulator tool to get an idea of how changes in target impression share could affect cost, impression share, and clicks.

Source: Search Engine Land