[SauronOfMordor]

Most new harvesters and tractors have so many sensors and so much computerization that when something goes wrong with them there is a not just mechanical, but database and computer troubleshooting that costs inordinate amounts of time and money to reset and/or fix. Some of these “fixes” require you to connect to an online “expert” and transfer data and computer control to him. AUUUGH

That implies that the right bit of malware, inserted at harvest time, has the potential to damage US food supplies.

[centermass_socrates]

That implies that the right bit of malware, inserted at harvest time, has the potential to damage US food supplies.

You are not wrong. I hadn’t really thought about it from that angle. Scary to think about. Good insight my friend.

[VetoBill]

Planting time would be a more potent attack. There is a tight window where things have to be done... harvest can drag out.

US ag is incredibly reliant on GPS. Most of the major planting is done with electronic guidance.

[BobL]

“That implies that the right bit of malware, inserted at harvest time, has the potential to damage US food supplies.”

You are correct, and that would make a GREAT NOVEL, and maybe even some attention to the risk will be paid. Right now, it’s no different than the need to winterize Texas power plants - there was never a need, because the system never collapsed in the past due to cold weather...

So, something like a Stuxnet Virus hits our harvesting equipment at just the wrong time...and people literally starve. Not a shot fired, the big, shiny tractors are still there, but dead to this world, paperweights.