Ransomware Shut Two Sugar Mills Mid-Harvest — Central West, Take Note

This winter a ransomware crew called The Gentlemen forced two Queensland sugar mills offline in the middle of the crushing season and locked up a national gourmet food supplier a few weeks later. Different businesses, same lesson — and it lands squarely on food and agribusiness operators here in the Central West.

What actually happened

In June, The Gentlemen hit Mackay Sugar, Australia’s second-largest raw sugar producer, halting milling and cane haulage at two mills days into the season, with more than 1,300 family farms told to stop harvesting. Weeks later the same group claimed Queensland supplier Royal Foods. This isn’t bad luck — it’s an affiliate operation scaling up fast, and it doesn’t care how big you are.

Why this matters in the Central West

If you run a food-processing plant, cold store, cooperative or ag-supply business around Orange, Bathurst or Dubbo, the real threat isn’t just leaked data — it’s an operational stop during your busiest window. A locked plant system at the wrong time of year is a spoiled batch and a missed order, not just an IT ticket. Across our Central West client base the pattern is consistent: 5 to 40 staff, no internal IT person, and one owner or office manager who quietly “looks after” the systems on top of everything else. That’s a thin line between a Tuesday click and a stopped production line.

What to do before it’s your turn

• Keep offline, tested backups you can actually restore from — not just a cloud sync, which ransomware can encrypt too.
• Turn on multi-factor authentication for email, remote access and any farm or plant management platform.
• Patch internet-facing gear like VPNs and firewalls quickly; that’s how these crews get their first foothold.
• Write a one-page “who do we call” plan now, while it’s calm — not at 2am with the line down.

Written by Michael Sacco, Head of Service Delivery, All IT Services. All IT is a managed IT provider supporting businesses across the Central West NSW, Sydney and Brisbane regions, with a focus on financial services, hospitality and not-for-profit sectors.

Frequently Asked Questions