While grain and wheat farms often use less connected technology than other types of farming businesses, they still carry a significant cyber exposure. That’s because they rely heavily on email, online banking and digital systems to manage suppliers, invoices and day-to-day administration.
For this family-run grain and wheat farm, those tools were an important part of keeping operations moving. Supplier communications, crop-related purchases, equipment costs and invoice payments were all managed digitally. But when a cybercriminal managed to redirect a supplier payment, the farm was left out of pocket. Fortunately, cyber insurance was in place to protect the business when the fraud was discovered.
The incident: Invoice payment redirected to fraudulent account
The employee responsible for ordering and accounting received a phishing email disguised as a routine login notification, tricking them into entering their credentials into a fake website. Without realising it, they gave a cybercriminal access to their email account.
This type of social engineering attack is a gateway for business email compromise (BEC), where threat actors gain access to inboxes and monitor emails for financial activity. In this case, the threat actor looked for communications with suppliers, gathering information about invoices, payment schedules and day-to-day business activity.
No small business wants to pay an invoice twice. But after channelling funds to a fraudulent account, the farm had no choice but to pay the full amount to the correct account.
After several weeks, the threat actor used that information to impersonate a trusted fertilizer supplier. They used a lookalike email address to share an updated invoice with new bank details. Believing the request to be genuine, the farm updated the payment details and sent the full amount to the fraudulent account, a sum of £31,900.
How the policy responds: Cover for a costly theft of funds scam
The incident only came to light when the real fertilizer supplier chased the overdue payment, by which time the stolen funds could no longer be recovered.
To maintain the supplier relationship and avoid disruption to the farm’s planned activity, the business had to make the payment for a second time. Fortunately, its cyber insurance policy responded to cover the financial loss, helping to protect the business from the cost of the scam.
The outcome: Protection against a growing cyber threat
This incident shows that cybercrime doesn’t always involve malware, system outages or highly connected technology. By gaining access to business communications and imitating a trusted supplier, the attacker was able to divert a routine payment and cause a significant financial loss.
For farming businesses, even straightforward digital processes like email and online banking can create exposure if criminals are able to exploit them.
As farms become more reliant on digital systems to manage payments and supplier relationships, cyber insurance provides an important safety net, helping to protect against the financial fallout of sophisticated fraud scams.
Learn more about how CFC’s cyber insurance is designed to support businesses through incidents and get them back up and running, fast.
