Recent incidents with elevators being hacked and companies having data held hostage calls for heightened cybersecurity as meticulous hackers request ransoms against agricultural companies. Dan Hanson with SVP Management Liability explains how cyberattacks are a targeted avenue of opportunity.
“They’re going to go to where you have the easiest access to a lot of information. In ag at times, you know, with the advent of Internet of Things, maybe some less investment in cybersecurity, maybe it’s a little bit easier target in some spaces. It’s critical infrastructure and obviously when you can impact food chain that gets people’s attention very quickly.”
Hanson says producers can protect themselves by gaining awareness and understanding.
“Get a little bit better at cyber protections and others and you lessen your chance for an event. So, I’d say awareness, having a plan if something does happen your organization, and then multifactor authentication would be three things that a producer could focus in on and probably help themselves quite a bit.
He advises to be aware and plan a response should you become a victim of a cyberattack.
“Do we have counsel lined up? Do we have a forensic investigator that we have, we’re aware of that we can talk to come in and see what happened to us, over what time period, and who was actually impacted. Those are two very important steps, have a plan, simple plan, this is what we’re going to do if we have an event, and then practice it a few times.”
Hanson says to have that plan in place, just like any other emergency plan for your operation. More information can be found at porkcheckoff.org.
