A ransomware incident at Coca-Cola-owned Fairlife forced the company to pause production across its U.S. facilities after attackers gained access to part of its technology environment. We’ll break down what happened and what organizations can do to reduce the risk of a similar shutdown, as we sit down and sync up with Rocket IT’s weekly technology update.

In this episode, you’ll hear more about:

• How ransomware disrupted production across Fairlife’s U.S. facilities.
• Why a cybersecurity incident can quickly become an operational shutdown.
• Which critical systems your business depends on to keep running.
• How limiting access can reduce the impact of a compromised account.
• What your organization needs to communicate, respond, and recover effectively.
• How a tabletop exercise can reveal gaps before a real incident occurs.

Video Transcript

On July sixteenth, Coca-Cola announced that its Fairlife subsidiary had discovered unauthorized third-party access to part of its technology environment. The affected environment included systems related to production, and Coca-Cola confirmed that the incident was connected to ransomware.

In response, Coca-Cola temporarily paused production across its U.S. Fairlife facilities while the company worked to contain the incident, investigate what happened, and restore the affected systems. They also activated an incident response and business continuity plans, brought in outside cybersecurity experts, and notified law enforcement in an effort to repair the damage.

At the time of this recording, the company has not publicly shared how the attackers first gained access. It also had not confirmed whether any information was stolen, which ransomware group was responsible, or when production would fully return to normal. But here is what we do know.

An unauthorized third party gained access to technology connected to production, and the company paused operations while it responded. That’s the part we need to pay attention to.

Ransomware can stop production, delay customer orders, interrupt billing, take important applications offline, and prevent employees from doing their jobs. Here in Metro Atlanta, it is especially eye-opening to see a company as recognizable as Coca-Cola dealing with that kind of disruption. And it reinforces an important lesson for every organization: before an incident happens, you need to know which parts of the business absolutely have to keep running.

A good place to start is with three simple questions: What does the business need to keep running? Who has access to it? And how would we recover if it went offline?

First, think about the systems your organization depends on most. You don’t need to begin by creating a massive list of every application your company uses. Start with the technology connected directly to customers, revenue, and daily operations.

That could include customer records, financial systems, scheduling tools, production platforms, inventory software, or the applications employees use to deliver your services.

Then ask a simple question: If this system became unavailable tomorrow morning, what part of the business would stop? That answer helps your team understand which systems need the strongest protection and which ones should be restored first during an incident.

The next question is: Who has access to those systems? Make sure multifactor authentication is in place, limit administrator access, and regularly review the permissions given to employees, vendors, and outside partners.

The goal isn’t to make it harder for people to do their jobs. It’s to make sure one compromised account doesn’t give an attacker an easy path into the rest of the organization.

Finally, think through how the business would respond and recover if an important system had to be taken offline. Who would lead the response? How would employees communicate? Which work could continue? And which systems would need to come back first? Backups are an important part of that plan, but they also need to be tested. Simply having a backup does not guarantee that the business can restore its information quickly enough to avoid a serious disruption.

One practical way to work through all of this is with a tabletop exercise. The scenario can be simple: It’s Monday morning, and your most important systems are unavailable. What stops? Who makes the first decision? How does the company communicate? And what needs to happen before normal operations can resume? You don’t need to prepare for every possible situation in one meeting. But if your team can answer those questions, you will have a much stronger place to start.

The Coca-Cola incident is a reminder that the impact of ransomware is not measured only by what an attacker may steal. It is also measured by what the business can no longer do. If your organization is unsure which systems are most critical, who can access them, or how quickly they could be restored, Rocket IT is here to help. Use the link in this video’s description to connect with our team and take a closer look at your organization’s ransomware readiness and business continuity plans. And to stay up to date on trending technology news, hit that subscribe button and the bell to catch us on next week’s episode of Sync Up with Rocket IT.