Ransomware Hits US Major Agricultural Machinery Maker, Causing Production Disruption

US-based global leading agricultural equipment maker, AGCO, confirmed a ransomware attack on 5 May after France media reported a cyberattack had hit AGCO in the country that had affected some of its production facilities.

Tim Brannon, president of B&G Equipment Inc, one of its local distributors, said they were coming into the busiest time of the year, but he cannot access AGCO’s website for ordering parts since Thursday, “it will be very damaging to our business and customers, he added.

Read also: quickbooks 2022

AGCO declared in its statement that it was still investigating the attack and business operations could be adversely affected for days or longer for fully reoperate hinging on the repair speed. While it didn’t disclose any further on the attack source or the company was going to pay the ransom.

AGCO is a global farm equipment manufacturer owning brands like Challenger, Gleaner, Valtra, and more, with 21,000 employees and assembles products in 42 locations around the world, grossing over $9 billion.

As a result, any downtime caused by cybercrime could have a significant impact on equipment production and delivery. The stock price of AGCO fell 5.76% to $123.3 at Friday’s close.

During the planting and farming seasons, there is an increased danger of ransomware attacks, according to the FBI. But beyond that, companies from all walks of life should bear in mind that cyber threats are very likely to interrupt business and bring economic damage from the shutdowns. We must, therefore, spare no efforts in strengthening the data defense. How to prevent cyber crimes?

For starters, reinforce IT systems from inside: Install antivirus software and endpoint protection services to protect your network from violent access and viruses. By scanning devices for malware and other viruses, they are able to shield malicious actors from your network. The key is to update and patch the software. As for endpoint protection, it means safeguarding all user devices connected to the company’s network.

Avert procedural errors: Establish an incident response plan, a process of preparing, detecting, restraining, and restoring from a cyberattack, and rules on how employees use company devices and security systems for conducting transactions. In this way, your business can respond to cybercrimes with speed and efficiency.

Set up strong passwords: Create complicated passwords using letters, special characters, and numbers for different accounts and update them periodically. And align passwords with multi-factor authentication to stop unauthorized access. Also, it’s necessary to set a password to the Wi-Fi.

Check defense measures regularly: Review your cybersecurity policies and have a regular audit of the cyber protection procedures. Cybersecurity policies outline the guidelines for accessing the internet safely. If your devices are lost, stolen or compromised, update all passwords.

Create a BCDR plan: A comprehensive BCDR plan, business continuity and disaster recovery, is critical to your company’s resilience and survival. Store data securely, have multiple data backups and conduct disaster recovery drills regularly to protect sensitive data from cybercrimes, data loss, natural disasters and human error. There are many third-party data protection vendors to protect critical data from cybercrimes. Vinchin Backup & Recovery is a one of the excellent virtual machine protection software for data backup and recovery providing real-time I/O to identify and restrict illegal access.

 

The first half of 2022 saw constant cyber attacks against all sorts of institutions all over the world. Reports from The University of Maryland shows hackers attack every 39 seconds (or 2,244 times a day on average). Hackers severely disrupted operations of companies, causing serious data breaches and economic damage. That’s why backup matters. And that’s why we suggest doing it now. Take action today so that you won’t be panic when ransomware hits.