A new threat analysis published last week warns that modern smart farm machinery is prone to the exploits of malicious threat actors. This analysis affects the global supply chain as these machines are exposed to risks.
The analysis warns everyone that hackers could take advantage of the flaws in agricultural hardware utilised by farmers to plant and harvest crops. In addition, the researchers stated that drones, robotic harvesters, and automatic crop sprayers could be exploitable by hackers.
A university researcher highlighted that the idea of intelligent farm machines is not just mere science fiction anymore. Large companies are already starting to upgrade autonomous agricultural bots and decision support systems that can potentially replace humans in farm fields.
However, there are still risks associated with these advancements since it deals with internet-related intelligence.
Smart farm machinery is the new target for several threat groups.
The FBI and the UK government have warned that smart farm machinery cyberattacks will grow dramatically.
Despite the immense growth of artificial intelligence for improving crop management and agricultural productivity, possible downsides should be addressed by security experts immediately. Researchers should thoroughly test new technologies in experimental settings to protect against unwanted consequences and agricultural productivity.
The research also enumerated the risks that must be addressed by cybersecurity groups when designing an artificial intelligence system for agricultural machinery. The details highlighted the dangers of malicious threat actors, such as disrupting commercial farms via artificial intelligence poisoning datasets. These attacks can affect sprayers, drones, and robotic harvesters by shutting them down in the middle of operations.
To fend off these risks, experts suggested that companies seek the help of “white hat hackers” to assist them in understanding security failures during the development stage of the operations.
This advanced machinery dedicated to a government’s essential sector is the latest trend that hackers might exploit in the future. Agricultural bots such as drones and sensors have already aided farmers in gathering information and decision-making. Therefore, threat actors, who are hostile enough, might take advantage of these advancements to execute their plans soon.
Billions of people will benefit from these technologies, especially food security. However, the threat will always linger, which can also affect the people that will use such means.
