When it comes to cyberattacks, ransomware and electronic fraud, farms and ranches are attracting the interest of hackers because they see these agriculture operations as potentially lucrative targets that may not have up-to-date fraud protection tools in place.
Cathy Lennon, general manager of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, says every point along the agrifood chain has been hit by a cyber attack because nearly every business is connected to the internet in some way.
“I think everyone is equally at risk. We’ve seen it on the farm, in the processing plants, and at retail. If you have a cell phone, if you have a computer, an I-Pad, if you have items on the farm that are connected to the internet, you are a target.”
Lennon says there is a misconception that computer system hackers are looking to extort only the bigger commercial businesses for large amounts of money. She says one case that stands out for her involved a small farm operation in Ontario last year (2023) and didn’t involve any money,
“Fairly simple ransomware was used to break into a small Ontario hog farm. They were able to paralyse cameras, accounting systems, feeding systems. The farm was held at a stand-still for a number of weeks. The attacker did not ask for money. What they were asking for was a false confession from the farm owners, indicating that they were responsible for animal abuse on the farm.”
Lennon says cybercrime prevention on the farm is as simple as keeping your computer system programs updated.
“Implementing some basic security practices at home on the farm. Do the updates. Often-times companies put out the newer version of software when they identify that there is a weakness, and they are trying to patch it across the system. So, take the updates, it’s not difficult.”
According to Statistics Canada, about 20% of all businesses can expect to be hit by a cybersecurity hack at some point.
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