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The Montana Department of Agriculture (MDA) said in a statement that they’d taken offline a software program called “USAHERDS”.
Ranchers use the USAHERDS software to track the health and location of their cows. The program’s website allows users to input data about their animals, including birth dates, vaccination records, and weight.
The software also generates reports about the animals, such as their average weight gain or loss over time. MDA said that the ranchers discovered the malware after they could not access the program’s website.
The US state of Montana stopped using the agricultural database a few months before its developer had to fix security flaws that were linked to a possible Chinese state-sponsored cyberattack.
Acclaim Systems, the Pennsylvania-based developer of the application, released a security upgrade in November to fix vulnerabilities exploited by APT41 several months earlier. APT41 is a China-based group that cybersecurity experts and US officials say carries out espionage on behalf of Beijing.
Executive Director David P. Burgess of Acclaim Systems wrote to Montana’s Agriculture Department that they had been ordered to make changes after an “event” in the state. According to Burgess, they had already completed and tested the modifications, and the app could be deployed to the staging area for testing as soon as allowed.
“The letter is to outline that we have made those suggested changes so that we can bring the application back online for use in Montana,” Burgess said.
Agricultural sites have become valuable digital assets for cybercriminals and state-sponsored hackers alike. Chinese and North Korean groups are the primary factions conducting industrial espionage worldwide, according to Adam Meyers – head of intelligence at CrowdStrike.
“Both climate change and the conflict in Ukraine continue to put additional pressure on international food supplies as threats to agriculture continue to proliferate,” said Meyers. “Digital agriculture continues to rely heavily on advanced technology, which is highly sought after for industrial espionage purposes.”
The MDA urges all Montana ranchers who use the USAHERDS software to update their programs to the latest version. The agency is also working with Acclaim Systems to determine how many ranchers in the state may have been affected by the malware.
MDA said that it is “not aware of any evidence” that the hackers were able to access ranchers’ personal information through the USAHERDS software. However, the agency advises ranchers to be vigilant for suspicious activity, such as unexpected credit card charges or unusual private information requests.
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