Food safety is, under the best of circumstances, a formidable endeavor that must balance policy with practice to protect the public health, the company and brand image, and the bottom line. That is business as usual. These are not ordinary times, however. The food industry continues to struggle with the many disruptions that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. A key issue is finding sufficient qualified employees, combined with the complex challenges of food safety training and protocol maintenance for these new and increasingly transient employees. Many managers also report problems that emerge from "not knowing their employees." This increases the potential for insider threats to emerge among disgruntled employees.

Cyber challenges are, likewise, increasing. Adversaries of all types use the internet to gain access to companies and steal anything of value. Hacktivists maliciously seek to achieve social justice, undermine public trust, alter policy, and damage food companies with which they disagree. Criminal organizations aim to rob and steal anything of value, including personally identifiable information (PII), which can be sold on the "Dark Web"—a part of the World Wide Web that is largely invisible to most people and is where criminal activities thrive.