With its cutting-edge digital tracking and technology, supply chain logistics has become one of the most complex aspects of the global economy. But savvy cyber criminals are using these complexities to their advantage, sending cargo theft rates soaring.
The FBI has issued a public alert that cyber-enabled cargo theft is surging, as threat actors impersonate legitimate brokers and carriers to hijack freight and reroute high-value shipments. Losses reached nearly $725 million across the U.S. and Canada in 2025 – a 60% year over year increase.
“Cyber threat actors have gained unauthorized access to the computer systems of brokers and carriers – typically via spoofed emails, fake URLs, and compromised carrier accounts,” the FBI said in the alert. “The cyber actors pose as victim companies and post fraudulent listings on load boards to deceive shippers, brokers, and carriers into handing over goods, which are redirected from their intended destination and stolen for resale.”
In Dec. 2025, a $400,000 shipment of lobster was technically stolen before ever arriving on the docks. Using a method known as a “fictitious pickup,” the thieves impersonated a legitimate freight carrier with spoofed email addresses and paperwork. They arrived at the facility, loaded the purloined seafood, and drove away long before the actual carrier arrived.
April 2026 saw another high-profile food theft – 413,793 limited-edition Formula 1 KitKat bars. A truck left a distribution hub near Turin, heading for regional warehouses. At one point on the route, the vehicle was intercepted by individuals posing as law enforcement, where the driver was tied up and the shipment was stolen. This was no lucky highway robbery – the rarity of the targeted product, and its ability to be stolen along pre-coordinated routes, implies the real crime was the data theft required to set up the heist in the first place.
Each case represents a type of cargo theft attractive to cyber criminals: high resale value, low traceability, quick turnover, and high liquidity. High-end seafood, limited-availability confections, and other perishable items are especially easy items for criminals to move, making supply chain tracking information that much more valuable to them.
It’s up to organizations to develop and maintain proactive supply chain security measures to mitigate this new age of cyber thievery. The FBI’s starting points to help organizations protect themselves include:
- Independently verifying shipment requests and pickups using secondary methods
- Implementing multi-channel verification, including validating unexpected supplier communications through a two-factor authentication process
- Maintaining thorough documentation of all parties to aid investigative efforts and potentially disrupt ongoing strategic cargo theft schemes