The cyberattack was first reported by the Luzerner Zeitung. The incident took place in Hagendorn, Switzerland, which is located between Zurich and Lucerne.
After hackers paralyzed Vital Birchner's computer, the Swiss farmer was no longer able to read vital data on his cows.
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Hackers demanded ransom. Farmer did not pay
The robot could no longer receive data from the computer, and the machine's display remained black. The farmer initially thought it was some kind of machine error, but when he asked the manufacturer, it turned out to be a hacker attack. The hackers demanded 10,000 Swiss francs (10.7 thousand euros) from the farmer to unblock the system.
It is worth noting here that the attacked system, including the robot, was not only responsible for milking cows, but also collected important data regarding the time of their fertilization. Since Bircher refused to pay the requested ransom, he was denied access to this data.
The unpleasant consequences of lack of data
The milking robot also works without being connected to a computer or network, so the farmer continued working and the milking robot could continue milking. It was also possible to restore an older version of the data, so it looked like the case would go away.
Unfortunately, there were some complications for one of the pregnant cows. The animal was supposed to give birth to a calf, but the farmer did not know when fertilization occurred. As a result, the cow, which had a dead calf in its womb, had to be put down.
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Hacker attacks in agriculture are becoming more frequent
Asked by journalists from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the farmer explained that the hacked computer was state-of-the-art and that he had only bought the device a year ago. The device ran Windows 11 and was equipped with an antivirus program.
The Federal Office for Cyber Security (BACS) in Switzerland assumes that the attack is a so-called "ransomware" attack. The perpetrators encrypt the victim's data and demand a ransom for their release. This year, 51 such cases have already been reported to the Swiss office (as of July 29, 2024), reports the portal Ingenieur.ch.
According to the Swiss Farmers' Association, there are other cases of hacked milking robots. However, these are isolated cases so far and not all of them are equally serious.
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