Pierluigi Paganini
August 10, 2024
An extortion attempt had a tragic outcome, cybercriminals took control of a cow milking robot and demanded a ransom from a farmer, but he did not pay, resulting in the death of a cow.
In November 2023, farmer Vital Bircher received a message from his milking robot on his phone, then he noticed that the device’s display was blank and was missing essential data such as cows’ names, weights, and milk quantities. Rebooting the device did not resolve the issue.
Bircher contacted the equipment manufacturer and learned from an IT specialist that his milking robot had been hacked and its data encrypted. The milking operations weren’t completely disrupted because some system components were disconnected, but the farmer faces serious problems due to the large number of cows.
“All the robot’s data had been encrypted; the only reason milking could still occur was because some parts of the system were disconnected from the computer. Given that Bircher has over 70 cows in his barn, the consequences could have been severe if milking had been entirely impossible.” reads the post published by the Swiss Info website.
The crooks demanded $10,000 for the data’s release, but the farmer did not pay it. The experts used an older software version used by the robot to recover data from previous years.
Bircher explained that one of his cows was dead following the cyberattack, he was not able to retrieve information about which animals were pregnant and for how long, for this reason he called a veterinarian, paying additional costs of 2,000 francs ($2.303,60 at the current rate).
The farmer explained that the lack of access to the exact insemination date was the cause of a cow’s death.
“One of the animals kept lying in the same stall, and when I couldn’t wake it up one day, I realized something was wrong,” Bircher explains. The veterinarian’s inspection revealed that the cow should have calved much earlier, but a dead calf had to be removed. “We did everything we could to save the mother, but in the end, we had to euthanize her,”
The attack ultimately cost the farmer about 6,000 francs, including for a new computer. He now recharges and disconnects his external hard drive weekly.
The Swiss Farmers’ Union (USC) noted other instances of cyber attacks on milking robots, but stated it’s not yet widespread. USC pointed out that the inability to milk cows is a critical issue.
According to the Swiss Info website, a similar case occurred in Hagendorn, Swiss farming village.
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