http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-29/monsanto-data-security-breached-at-precision-planting.html
By Jack Kaskey
bloomberg.com
May 29, 2014
Monsanto Co. (MON)’s data security was breached at its Precision Planting
unit, exposing employees and customers to potential misuse of credit card
information and tax identification numbers.
Fewer than 1,300 farmer customers were affected by the breach, Christy
Toedebusch, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis-based company, said in an
e-mail yesterday. Monsanto discovered on March 27 that an outside party
had accessed Precision Planting servers, the company said in a May 14
letter to the Office of the Attorney General in Maryland, where 14 state
residents may have been affected.
The breach comes as Monsanto and competitors such as DuPont Co. (DD) begin
to offer data services to help farmers boost yields with advice on issues
such as seed spacing and chemical applications. The aggregation of
farmers’ data by multinational agricultural companies is stirring concern
about privacy and business risks.
Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, doesn’t believe the breach was
an attempt to steal customer information, Toedebusch said. While the
company isn’t aware of any misuse of the information, it notified affected
customers and is offering them complimentary credit monitoring services
for a year, she said.
[...]
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