John Deere recently asked 20 college students from around the U.S. to attempt to hack into an ag tractor at one of its test farms.
The week-long event Cyber Tractor Challenge was part of Deere’s efforts to proactively find and address vulnerabilities within its operating systems while also attracting some of the best talent in the world, according to the company.
Carl Kubalsky, business information security officer for tech stack and cloud, said the first-year event is a way for Deere to find people with the skills the company needs.
“There is a real need for people that have the talents that they have to come and help us find where there might be some holes or opportunities in our products so we can button those up, continue to be that premiere ag equipment and technology producer, and keep our customers safe in the field,” Kubalsky said in a prepared statement.
“We modeled our event after the cyber auto challenge and cyber truck challenge,” Kubalsky said in a video (above) about the event.
I would love to find a bug and solve it,” said Katrina Rosemond, a student from the University of Colorado and a participant in the event. “I love figuring how to make a system do something that’s not supposed to do or something that we didn’t think it could do.”
Source: Deere & Co.
