GUELPH — World-wide farm agriculture equipment maker AGCO suffered a crippling cyberattack on May 5 when access to its computer system was shut down by ransomware. Ransomware is malicious software designed to block access to a computer system and hold it hostage until money is paid. The Duluth, Georgia, based company, has not divulged how much money, if any, it paid out to criminals but stated that the majority of its operation was secured and back up and running after a week.
AGCO has 1,810 dealerships in North America. Immediately following the ransomware attack, dealers were struggling to keep up with orders that were already backlogged, Reuters reported.
The world’s largest meat packer JBS SA, suffered a partial shutdown in 2021 also due to ransomware. Much smaller companies have been targeted. So have hospitals and schools. In late August, Canadian recreational vehicle maker Bombardier was cyrberattacked for the second time.
More than 1.2 million ransomware threats per month have been detected by Barracuda Networks between January to June 2022, which was higher than the same period in 2021, TechRepublic reported.
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