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Cyberattacks a growing concern for ag industry

An FBI special agent says agriculture is a growing target for cyber criminals.

Gene Kowel, with the FBI’s Omaha field office, says a key reason is because of the industry’s ties to the economy and national security.

“A lot of producers don’t have a big budget for cybersecurity, and because of that, both cyber criminals and nation/state adversaries see that as a vulnerability that they’re more than happy to exploit,” he says.

According to the FBI, ransomware attacks, foreign malware, data and intellectual property theft and bio-terrorism are the four primary threats facing agriculture. Kowel says increased reliance on cloud-based technology through precision agriculture has created more vulnerabilities.

“And that is something that foreign adversaries like China can take advantage of to steal our data, to steal our information, and even in the time of conflict, have the ability to interfere with our operations and to stop operations completely.”

He says simple steps, like having multi-factor authentication and reporting incidents when they happen, can help protect the entire industry.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of in this arena. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. We treat victims of a cyberattack as a victim like any other crime. It’s not their fault,” he says. “Our job is to both respond, give them whatever services we can to help them get back into business and then impose some kind of risk and consequences on the adversary.”

According to the FBI, six grain cooperatives in the upper Midwest were targets of cyberattacks in 2022 and forced to temporarily shut down. Kowel says another farm recently suffered a $9 million loss and had to cease operations.