1300 Monsanto Client and Staff Details Compromised by Seedy hacker

1300 Monsanto client and staff credit card data along with names, addresses and US taxation information compromised by seedy hacker, they are breaks the server security.

Monsanto is a publicly traded American multinational chemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. 

It is a leading producer of genetically engineered seed and of the herbicide glyphosate, which it markets under the Roundup brand.

Monsanto confirmed that the security breach occurred in late March on a server that stored employee and customer account information, including some credit card information and tax ID numbers.

“The incident didn't impact the farming data collected by Precision Planting equipment (like yield data), as that is stored on a separate system,” confirmed Christy Toedebusch, a spokeswoman for Monsanto's Climate Corp. unit, which manages the Precision Planting business

The breach affected Monsanto's Precision Planting division which manufactured specialist farming equipment. It came as the agriculture giant pushed to sell big data intelligence services harvested from and disseminated to its customers.

They said, "We believe this unauthorised access was not an attempt to steal customer information; however, it is possible that files containing personal information may have been accessed and therefore we are making this notification."

"Files on the affected servers contained personal information, including customer names, addresses, tax identification numbers (which in some cases could be Social Security Numbers), and (in some cases) financial account information.

"Additionally, some HR data was stored on the servers, including some W2 tax forms that contained employee name, address, and Social Security numbers and (for a small number of employees) driver’s license numbers."

Monsanto officials have been quietly alerting some farmers, dealers, employees and industry leaders in recent weeks that a computer server at their Precision Planting center in Tremont, Illinois, was remotely hacked, industry sources told Agri-Pulse.

One farmer who was contacted by Monsanto but who asked not to be identified said he was told that the breach affected data for about 900 customers, 300 employees and 400 dealers.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman told Agri-Pulse that he had already been alerted about Monsanto's security breach.

“If the Defense Department and large corporations like Target have been hacked, you have to expect that it will ultimately happen to agricultural companies,” Stallman said. “Anyone who is somewhat aware of this debate over data management understands that security is a big issue.”

Author Venkatesh Yalagandula Follow us Google + and Facebook and Twitter