Protect Your Farm: Don’t Let Cyberattacks Hold Your Data for Ransom

You could "lose the farm" because of an unforeseen cyberattack. Here's how to understand your risk and protect your farm.
You could "lose the farm" because of an unforeseen cyberattack. Here's how to understand your risk and protect your farm.
(Farm Journal)

On July 15, 2021, employees at Augusta Cooperative Farm Bureau Inc.   were watching the clock and thinking about their evening plans. Suddenly, at 4 p.m., all 85 computers flashed, and the screens went white. 

The next morning the phone rang with an answer: Cyberhackers were on the line demanding a ransom. Five minutes later, the criminals took down the website for the ag retailer in Staunton, Va.  

“It’s all still pretty fresh in our mind,” says Brad Brown, assistant general manager of the cooperative.

The issue took a month to resolve, and the same could happen to you. 

“One could ‘lose the farm’ because of an unforeseen cyberattack,” says Steve Cubbage, precision ag consultant for Farmobile. “If you are a farmer who has connected data to the ‘cloud,’ or the CEO of a co-op, you are a target, and this threat is not going away.”

Cyber Security Tips
Source: Farm Journal

NO WHERE TO HIDE

Agriculture is now one of the top 10 industries targeted by cyberattackers. In the fall of 2021, per the FBI, six grain cooperatives were targeted during harvest, and two were targeted this past spring. One related business management software company faced a hacker that demanded $30 million in July 2021. That also led to several ag cooperatives being infected.  

“The agriculture community can no longer sit here and say we’re not a target,” says Andrew Rose, cybersecurity and agroterrorism consultant. “The potential impact of a successful attack on our food and agricultural supply chain is dawning on people.”

Watch Webinar: AgroTerrorism and the Threat to American Farms

He points to the ransomware attack on JBS USA in May 2021. Hackers shut down one of the world’s largest meat packers, forcing 13 plants to stop operations until the company paid an $11 million ransom in bitcoin. It caught the attention of the White House and people across the industry.

“We have to realize food security is national security,” says Sean Riley, chief technology officer for the state of North Dakota. 

BAD ACTORS

Traditionally, online threats came from hackers or people who gained access to a computer or network with the purpose of stealing valuable information (bank account numbers, social security data, tax information, etc.). 

Now, cybercriminals lock systems or encrypt files and hold them for ransom. These bad actors are betting you or the companies you do business with will be willing to pay to regain access. 

“Your files are encrypted, and they shut everything down leaving you only a phone number to call,” says Brian Grant, director of food and agribusiness at Cottingham & Butler. “It is meant for shock and awe, and they don’t want you to be able to think straight at the time.”

Hackers will also go through your files and see if personal or trade secrets are present and worth selling to others on the dark web. Here are just a few staggering statistics: 
  

  • Roughly 90% of all indictments are from overseas actors, including China, Russia, Ukraine and North Korea. 
  • Payments now average between $570,000 and $800,000, depending on who you ask. 
  • The amount being charged or paid for ransom has increased by 395% over the past two years.

 

“The ransom requested is always higher, but it’s often negotiated down,” says David Cumbow, principal architect for Palo Alto Networks, a cybersecurity firm. 

The threat is so serious that earlier this year the FBI did something unprecedented. It issued a public advisory warning about cyberattacks because of the potential to disrupt significant and essential parts of the agricultural industry during critical parts of the season. 

“We’re using our law enforcement avenues, the intelligence community is using theirs, as is the Department of Defense,” says Henry Heim, FBI supervising special agent. “We also manage the national cyber investigative joint task force with 30 partnering agencies from across law enforcement, the intelligence community and more.”

Cross-industry teams are working to identify who is behind the attacks and hopefully arrest them.  

“America is the largest producer of food in the world because we have the intellectual property, the farmers, the supply chain and everyone wants to get that information,” says Garrett Bladow, senior advisory engineer with Dragos and former technical lead at the National Security Agency. 

FROM PC TO GPS

Andrew Rose

In early May, CNN reported tractors and combines stolen from a Ukrainian dealership and moved 700 miles to Chechnya had been remotely disabled. The same software used to help diagnose technical issues and allow farmers to track their equipment in the field had been refocused to limit that equipment’s use. 

Experts say if it can be used by the good guys to stop bad guys, there’s always risk of it being leveraged the opposite direction. 

“I was working for a machinery manufacturer and their equipment had auto steer,” Bladow recalls. “We were able to make two tractors crash into each other.” 

ONE WEAK LINK

Bladow has been working in the computer technical world for years, both privately and publicly. He helped to write some of the software currently used in the industry and knows what’s possible. 

Check For Updates

“Let’s say you set your seed depth,” Bladow explains. “We could change those values and set it from 1" to 8" and now the field won’t grow.”

That’s why researchers with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are studying cybersecurity for agricultural machinery and technology. Santosh Pitla, an associate professor of advanced machinery systems, is looking closely at autonomous tractor and agricultural robotics

“You could have really smart equipment — an autonomous machine with a lot of computers, sensors and artificial intelligence — but if it has a weak link with respect to cybersecurity, all that intelligence is of no use,” he says. “Providing safe and secure agricultural machinery is important for food and national security.”

Bladow agrees, noting the threat goes beyond national security to competitive and financial issues. 

“For instance, are you sending telemetry from your combine that shows how many bushels per acre you’re harvesting? What would that information mean for the futures market?” Bladow asks. “If there are people who can get into those systems and aggregate that data, they have the ability to set trends or do whatever nefarious thing they want to do.”

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION

A farm run by a single computer or two is often using popular business software to track expenses, manage agronomy and sort data. The entirety of a farm’s business sitting in one place makes it vulnerable to attacks. 

“As more devices are hooked up to networks and more tasks are turned over to automation, the opportunity and potential reward for cyberattackers will only grow exponentially during the next several years,” says Farmobile’s Cubbage.

That’s why many in the industry are working to be better prepared — and warning farmers to be proactive.

“Just one farmer sitting on his or her farm is so interconnected,” Rose says. “How their grain or livestock feeds up through the food and agricultural supply chain is critical. If we take food out of the equation, it will take about three weeks for the government to fall.”  


Cyberattacks = Big $

Ransomware, a malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid, is the biggest threat: 

  • $812,369: the average ransomware payment
  • $1.4 million: the average total cost to remediate a ransomware attack
  • 30 days: the average time to recover from a cyberattack
  • 90%: of attacks affect the target company’s ability to operate

Farm Journal Editor Clinton Griffiths is a TV newsman turned magazine editor with a passion for good stories. He believes the best life lessons can be found down a dirt road.
 

Check out Farm Country Update and learn more from Andrew Rose about how you can protect yourself, your farm and your agricultural business.

 

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