In the USA, students participated in a special hackathon aimed at hacking tractor control and communication systems. These efforts were focused on discovering vulnerabilities to enhance cybersecurity in agricultural machinery production.

During the CyberTractor Challenge held at Iowa State University, participants analyzed CAN-Bus protocols, IoT systems, and tractor software. Student teams worked on identifying potential vulnerabilities in tractors from John Deere, Fendt, and Case IH. Organizers provided special equipment and technical information to simulate real cyber-attacks without causing any harm to the equipment.

Manufacturers of agricultural machinery actively supported this initiative. John Deere, CNH (owner of the Case IH brand), and AGCO (owner of the Fendt brand) used the hackathon results to improve the cybersecurity of their products and attract promising specialists for further collaboration.

This initiative underscored that in the era of digitization in the agricultural sector, cybersecurity threats are becoming increasingly relevant, especially in the context of potential attacks on autonomous machinery, which could pose a real threat if control is lost.