Attacks on the IoT will target food supply chains

While cyber-attacks are a challenge across many industries, agribusinesses are particularly vulnerable due to lack of preparedness to address these threats. Cyber-attacks can severely disrupt agricultural operations, leading to issues of the integrity of food supply chains, as well as severe economic losses. Several factors contribute to the heightened risk of cyber-attacks in agribusinesses.

Hackers and cyber attackers are targeting agribusinesses due to the value and wealth the sector holds. The nature and abundance of agricultural data, including information ranging from crop cultivation and harvest schedules to financial records, makes agribusinesses targets for ransom demands. Advanced farming techniques like precision farming have led to an increase in the volume of data at risk, further broadening the sector's vulnerability to breaches. Precision farming employs modern advancements like sensors, drones, and data analysis software to enhance resource productivity and farm management decisions. The vast data collected by these technologies has led to growing concerns regarding the privacy of farmers’ information (Kaur et al. 2022).

The widespread adoption of internet-connected devices in agriculture, known as the Internet of Things (IoT), provides valuable insights for farmers but also creates significant security vulnerabilities. Many IoT devices lack strong security measures, making them easy targets for various cyber threats like data theft and denial-of-service attacks. Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution is supposed to be bringing new structural and corporate changes that are based on digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), IoT, cloud computing, CV, AR, autonomous robots, Big Data, and cybersecurity (Silva et al. 2023). The use of AI tools in farming, such as smart collars for livestock monitoring and automated decision-making systems, brings a new area with potential for cyber-attacks. These AI-driven technologies, including precision farming tools, may be targeted by hackers aiming to disrupt operations by tampering with data or machinery.

As the nature of agricultural information storage becomes more data-driven and connected, farmers rely heavily on third-party providers like agricultural technology companies (ATPs) for crucial services such as data analysis and payroll management. However, this shift has further raised worries about the security and privacy of data in the supply chain that cyber attackers could potentially exploit.

In addition to insider data leakage and cloud data leakage, another form of cyber-attack trend observed in agribusinesses are instances such as false data injection, where the hackers falsify data via real-time information to tamper with decisions and results; and misinformation attacks leading to issues involving data integrity. In this attempt they would release misinformation such as disease outbreaks which requires significant investment of time, effort and money to disprove the released report (Gupta et al. 2020).

Recent Incidences of Cybersecurity Attacks in Agriculture

The use of digital technologies has been viewed as part of the solution to challenges such as rising costs of inputs, climate change, and labor shortages, and they offer opportunities for value-addition, access to transactions, and improved traceability, among others. However, as agriculture adopts data-driven technologies, cloud-based storage, open-sourced software, and proprietary management tools, cyber-attack opportunities expand. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has pinpointed greater cybersecurity risks for agriculture and food security with the increasing reliance on Internet-enabled devices and data-driven technologies that involves the generation and use of large volumes of data. In fact, several incidents have been recorded in recent years across the world vis-à-vis data and systems breaches in the food and agriculture industry, across a broad spectrum of small and large companies, farms, and cooperatives. Most cyber-attack incidents aim to slow or shut down the agricultural and food production and distribution systems for ransom payments or, in some cases, to disrupt prices or to get proprietary information from a specific company. Some attacks have been notably timed to coincide with critical periods in the farming calendar, such as planting and harvest seasons. The impact of these cyber-attacks is multifaceted and extends beyond immediate financial losses.

According to the 2023 Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) Report of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a total of 2,825 ransomware complaints were filed across all sectors, amounting to about $59.6 billion losses. Of this, 1,193 complaints belong to 16 identified critical infrastructure sectors, which includes the food and agriculture industry. Recently, agricultural cooperatives have been targeted by a variety of cyber-attacks due to their crucial role in the food supply chain and the time-sensitive nature of their operations. An attack during peak seasons could significantly disrupt the supply of essential goods such as seeds and fertilizers, thereby affecting planting schedules and ultimately, the food supply chain. The FBI has observed such patterns of attacks, with several incidents reported during the fall 2021 harvest and ahead of the 2022 planting season. With the pressure to maintain supply chain integrity, these cooperatives might be perceived as having a higher willingness to pay the ransom, making them lucrative targets for ransomware actors (FBI, 2021, 2022).