A connected tractor, for instance, will share a number of security considerations with similar products, such as connected vehicles, he said. The food and agriculture sector doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel, Kubalsky said, and can learn lessons from other industries. And this is what you can look for moving forward,” he said. “We’re very transparent with our employees about how this was the vulnerability, this is how we found it, this is how we closed it. It hosts an annual cyber event at its test farm in Des Moines, Iowa, where university students attempt to hack its equipment, and frequently dissects vulnerabilities with its software-engineering staff. Kubalsky, who helps lead several hundred cybersecurity staff at the company, said Deere works with security companies such as HackerOne and Bishop Fox to find vulnerabilities in its software. & Co., whose tractors and harvesters are ubiquitous across the U.S. “Everything is becoming more and more connected, and as things become connected, that creates an attack surface,” saidĭeputy chief information security officer at That also introduces cybersecurity challenges, manufacturers say. Meanwhile, the heavy equipment used by farmers is also dependent on computer systems, particularly as autonomous vehicles gain wider use. These internet-enabled devices are often poorly secured and provide opportunities for hackers to gain entry to networks that might otherwise be tough to crack. Farmers now make use of distributed networks, remote sensors and edge computing to increase automation and efficiency on their farms, to monitor the health of crops and tell when their equipment needs maintenance. food industry, driving up wholesale meat prices and disrupting trade in cattle and hogs.Īgriculture faces similar cybersecurity threats to other critical infrastructure sectors, but Cargill’s Hershberger and other security chiefs say that it also has unique challenges owing to how it uses technology, and connects with a range of industries, including water, power, logistics and other areas.įood production, from planting and harvesting crops, and rearing livestock, through to packaging and logistics, has become a technologically sophisticated process in recent years. Grain cooperatives, distributors and vital services such as meatpackers have also fallen victim to hackers in recent years, with the highest-profile incident to date being a ransomware attack on the U.S. Dole didn’t respond to a request for comment. The incident cost around $10.5 million, the company said in its first-quarter earnings report. In February, a ransomware attack on food giantįorced the company to briefly shut down its North American systems, though it quickly recovered. While those attacks had limited impacts, experts say they are warning signs of how easily a cyberattack could disrupt the nation’s food supply. agricultural sector have deepened after incidents at several large companies. We have playbooks that we’ve developed and our members provide input on that, help track the adversaries, their tactics, techniques and procedures, how they move around, how you can stop them,” Algeier said.Ĭoncerns about cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the U.S. “There’s been a long recognition that the food and ag sector was one of the few critical infrastructure industries without an ISAC,” saidĮxecutive director of both the IT-ISAC and the new Food and Ag-ISAC.
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