Feed mills 'easy targets' for cyberattacks due to legacy systems [VIDEO]

Interstates' Brandon Bohle discusses how feed manufacturers can protect against ransomware attacks and balance security with operational needs.

As feed mills become increasingly connected, outdated technology and legacy systems are making them vulnerable targets for cybercriminals.

In a recent interview with Feed Strategy Chat, Brandon Bohle, endpoint security lead at Interstates, explains why feed manufacturers need to prioritize cybersecurity while maintaining operational efficiency. From employee training programs to network segmentation, Bohle shares practical insights on protecting feed operations from evolving cyber threats, with a particular focus on preventing and mitigating ransomware attacks.    

Transcription of interview with Brandon Bohle, endpoint security lead, Interstates

Jackie Roembke, editor-in-chief, WATT feed brands: Hello everyone, welcome to Feed Strategy Chat. I'm your host, Jackie Roembke, editor-in-chief of WATT feed brands.

This edition of Feed Strategy Chat is brought to you by the 2025 Feed Mill of the Future Conference. The half-day event will bring together leading feed industry experts to examine emerging feed mill technologies poised to impact animal feed manufacturing. It will be held on January 28 at the International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE)  2025. The conference, produced by Feed Strategy and Feed & Grain, is organized in partnership with the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA).

To learn more about the 2025 edition of the Feed Mill of the Future Conference, visit www.feedmillofthefuture.com.

Today we're joined by Brandon Bohle, endpoint security lead with Interstates. He's here to talk about protecting your feed operation from cyberattacks.

Hi, Brandon, how are you today?

Bohle: Good. Thanks for having me today, Jackie.

Roembke: Thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Now, let's get right into it. In your experience with working with feed mills, what would you say are the vulnerabilities that could make these facilities particularly attractive targets to cyber criminals?

Bohle: Yeah, a lot of times we see in these mill facilities, old technology that comes into the plants. We're seeing very legacy systems and hardware that are still out there. And then we're also seeing these systems become more and more connected, right? So the attackers that are out there, they're hitting these mills and processing facilities because they're kind of the easy targets because of these legacy technologies. Those are the biggest things that we see as issues at the facilities that we go into each day.

Roembke: I've read that some organizations struggle when it comes to balancing convenience and security when setting up their network architecture. What are some critical mistakes that you see being made in the feed industry in this area?

Bohle: Yeah, and some of the other mistakes that we see when setting up the architecture really is trying to either over secure an environment, and that causes potential production issues, or we see people rely too heavily on the production, and then you don't get any security in there. So it really is finding that good balance between security and operations right, and it really comes down to having that good relationship between your IT and your operations group so that you can work on is this security control that you want to implement on the security side, able to work with what we need to do on the operation side.

If you get too far tilted one way or another, either you're not going to have good security or you're not going to be able to produce in the fashion that you want. Or it can cause additional increase of cost to actually be able to produce.

So those are the things you really need to do when looking at securing a new operation.

Roembke: When it comes to preventing something like a ransomware attack, where should companies focus their resources first? Should it be technology, personnel training or something with the operational procedures?

Bohle: Yeah, really it's a good balance, and that question is really going to depend from organization to organization, right? I always say that your people and your employees are your first line of defense when it comes to protecting against ransomware, right? So having a good training program is really going to get you a long ways.

If you can get your whole organization brought into training and getting your people to understand their role in the security of the overall organization, that's probably going to be your biggest bang for the buck is from the prevention side of things.

Right now, when it comes to ransomware, the other good thing to do is have good backups on the back end, right, if for some reason your people side fails, somebody does click on that email that has ransomware in it, having good backups is going to allow you to get back up and running as quickly as possible.

Now, on the technology side of things, the other thing we always recommend to is having good segmentation between different network segments within the organization, so that if you do have a ransomware attack, hopefully the spread is very limited to one piece of the organization. So again, you're really limiting your risk and exposure.

Roembke: Has the threat landscape for feed producers evolved over recent years, and what new cyber security challenges should operators be preparing for?

Bohle: We're seeing a lot of these challenges come in, especially as we start talking more about Network 3.0, Network 4.0, you talk about the IT-OT convergence, right? Whatever sort of kind of buzz word that you want to utilize within your organization.

You know, as we see that connectivity increase within the organization, we're going to see more and more of these vulnerabilities occur. And really the biggest thing that we see is probably that ransomware, right? That ransomware is the biggest issue that mills and other processing facilities are seeing right now. But then the other thing that comes alongside of that too is a lot of the facilities that we work with have some pieces of the organization that are still running on very old and legacy technology, right? And the security that comes along with those systems has lagged so far behind that we see those as kind of being the biggest security holds. So the challenge is, either if you have the capital expenditure to update those systems, that's great, move forward with that. Otherwise, how do you protect those systems while still being legacy, outdated systems, but protecting against the most up-to-date threats that are out there, such as ransomware.

Roembke: Excellent. Thank you so much for those insights. Now, if you will be at IPPE 2025 and you're interested in more information on cyber security, consider joining us for the Feed Mill of the Future Conference, where Brandon will be giving his presentation on cyber security, “How to fortify your data and future proof your networks.”

For more information on the Feed Mill of the Future Conference, please visit www.feedmilofthefuture.com.

Thanks again, Brandon, and thanks to you for tuning in. 

Page 1 of 4
Next Page