FBI warns agriculture sector on cyber threats

FBI's Agriculture Threats Symposium in Nebraska highlighted ransomware, foreign malware, IP theft, and bioterrorism risks facing U.S. farming and food infrastructure.

The FBI's Omaha Field Office and Nebraska Farm Bureau hosted the second annual Agriculture Threats Symposium, bringing together over 400 farmers, cybersecurity experts, and policymakers to discuss growing cyber and national security risks to U.S. agriculture. Officials outlined four major threat categories tracked by the Bureau: ransomware attacks, malware from foreign adversaries, theft of data and intellectual property, and bioterrorism. The event underscored how precision farming technology—GPS systems, automated equipment, and cloud-connected machinery—has expanded the attack surface for an industry increasingly treated as critical infrastructure alongside water, power, and transportation.

Specific incidents cited include a 2021 ransomware attack attributed to Russia that shut down a major meatpacking plant, six grain cooperatives in the Midwest forced to shut down after cyberattacks last year, and a farm that suffered $9 million in damages. The FBI also referenced ongoing economic espionage by Chinese nationals posing as tourists or researchers to steal rice and corn seed intellectual property. Officials connected these threats to the broader Volt Typhoon campaign, in which Chinese state actors were found to have pre-positioned access within multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, reinforcing DHS assessments that adversaries view infrastructure targeting as a way to induce cascading disruption.

The symposium's primary message centered on basic cyber hygiene—multi-factor authentication and data backups—and building information-sharing partnerships between the FBI and the largely privately-controlled agriculture sector. No specific new technical indicators, malware samples, or CVEs were disclosed; the piece is an awareness and outreach report rather than a technical advisory.

Source reporting: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/agriculture-threats-symposium-in-nebraska-highlights-safety-measures-to-protect-nations-critical-food-infrastructure