Farming has long been a sector defined by resilience—adapting to weather, markets, and labor challenges. Now, a new threat is emerging: cybersecurity risks. Agriculture ranks as the seventh most-targeted industry in the U.S. for cyberattacks, according to *Forbes*, a reality that’s pushing farmers to rethink how they protect not just their land, but their data and technology.
The vulnerabilities are twofold, explains Brian Arnall, a plant and soil science professor at Oklahoma State University. There’s *data security*—financial records, yield maps, and operational reports—and *technology security*, where digitally connected farm equipment becomes a potential entry point for hackers. “Somebody could hack into the system, lock it down, and demand ransom,” Arnall says. Yet, for many small-scale operations, the data itself may not be valuable enough to warrant a high-stakes attack. “Sure, someone could steal my yield maps from the past 10 years,” he admits. “But I’m not paying a million dollars to get them back.”
The real concern lies beyond individual farms. David Young, Kansas’ deputy homeland security adviser and a retired military cybersecurity specialist, warns that nation-states like China, Russia, and Iran are actively probing U.S. infrastructure—including agricultural systems—for weaknesses. The risk isn’t just theoretical. Young points to “back doors” embedded in overseas-made technology, such as drones or farm management software, which could give hackers access to broader networks. A compromised irrigation system, for instance, might seem isolated, but if it’s linked to a farmer’s phone—which also handles banking or email—that device becomes a bridge for cybercriminals.
John Long, an OSU associate professor in biosystems and agricultural engineering, notes that agriculture’s cybersecurity defenses often lag behind other industries. Many farmers assume their remote locations provide a buffer, a concept known as “security through obscurity.” But as operations connect to the internet—whether for real-time monitoring or autonomous machinery—that protection erodes. “Once we start linking systems to the web, physical distance doesn’t matter anymore,” Long says.
The stakes were illustrated in May 2024, when solar storms disrupted RTK GPS signals, rendering some farm equipment inoperable. While not a cyberattack, the incident highlighted how dependent farming has become on digital systems—and how vulnerable those systems can be. “If someone intercepts or corrupts the data feeding into an autonomous tractor, it might apply seed or spray at the wrong rate,” Long explains. “The machine doesn’t know the difference.”
Advanced technologies like “see and spray” systems, which use AI to distinguish crops from weeds in milliseconds, offer efficiency gains but also new risks. John Cothren, operations manager at P&K Equipment, warns that if such a system were hacked, the consequences could extend beyond financial loss. “Imagine if someone altered the AI to spray herbicide on the crop instead of the weeds,” he says. “That’s not just a data breach—that’s a field destroyed.”
The solution, experts agree, starts with basic cyber hygiene. Young advises farmers to use complex, unique passwords (16+ characters with mixed cases, numbers, and symbols), enable multifactor authentication, and update passwords regularly—especially after international travel. Devices should never be left unattended in public, and Bluetooth should be disabled when not in use. Simple steps like restarting phones weekly can disrupt hackers lurking in background apps.
For an industry built on tangible assets—soil, seed, and steel—the shift to digital defense may feel unfamiliar. But as Arnall recalls, the FBI was sounding alarms about agricultural cybersecurity nearly a decade ago. The threat isn’t new; it’s just reached the field. And in farming, as in cybersecurity, prevention is always cheaper than the cure.