Military Software to Help Food Producers Guard Against Attacks

How vulnerable is the U.S. food basket? Food producers now can use software developed for the U.S. military to assess their vulnerability to tampering, terrorism, or other criminal attacks. The risk assessment tool was adapted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Agriculture to help farmers and other producers evaluate their supply chains and processes for weaknesses that someone could exploit. The Director of the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition said in a press release that the tool can help producers understand how an attacker may think as well as how to implement countermeasures for weak points. The tool evaluates the health and economic impact of attacks, ease of reaching potential targets, ease of recovery following an attack, vulnerability to attack, potential production loss following an attack, visibility as a potential target, and psychological impact of an attack.

Called CARVER + Shock, it is an offensive targeting prioritization tool adapted from the military version (CARVER) for use in the food industry. The tool can be used to assess the vulnerabilities within a system or infrastructure to an attack. It allows the user to think like an attacker to identify the most attractive targets for an attack. By conducting a CARVER + Shock assessment of a food production facility or process, the user can determine the most vulnerable points in their infrastructure, and focus resources on protecting the most susceptible points in their system.

It’s available as a download for appropriate Security Blog viewers at: www.fda.gov/food/fooddefense/carver