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157: Cybersecurity in Agriculture What Every Producer Needs to Know · CattleUSA Daily

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  Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
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  Your go to source for. The latest livestock markets,
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  industry insights and the updates shaping agriculture
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  today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
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  passionate advocate for agriculture here.
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  To keep. You informed and connected, now
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  let's dive into today's episode. Welcome back to another episode
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  of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast. I wanted to come on here today
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  because I read an article the other day that really had me
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  turning, turning the wheels in my brain.
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  It made me really stop and think.
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  And then after I stopped to think about it, I was like, I'm
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  going to, I'm going to research this a little bit more.
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  I'm going to go dive in. I am going to figure out what
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  are research institutions saying?
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  What's the research out there saying about all of this?
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  And like, let's break it down, right?
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  And it was not about markets or weather or cattle health or
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  anything like that. It was actually about
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  cybersecurity. Yes, you heard me right about
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  cyber threats. And at 1st, I'm going to be
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  completely honest, I thought like, OK, cool, like we're
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  talking about some packing plants getting hacked.
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  What does this have to do with me and my cattle operation?
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  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much
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  tech is in each of our operations and how much of our
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  operations rely on technology, from our record keeping apps, to
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  our feed systems, to our banking, to the equipment that
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  we run, all of it. And if those things get shot
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  down, hacked, or just compromised in general, it's not
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  just a little inconvenience, it could potentially bring an
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  operation to its knees. So today I wanted to come on
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  here and chat with you guys about cyber threats and AG, Why
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  it matters more honestly than most of us realize.
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  Why we need to be paying attention to it, and some simple
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  ways that we can be protecting our farms and ranches.
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  So let's take a minute and think about how much tech we already
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  rely on without even noticing. GPS guidance in our tractors got
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  automated water systems. We've got apps that we use to
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  log treatments. We've got our financial
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  software, we've got our sale barn streaming platforms.
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  We have so much technology at our fingertips.
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  Most of that was built for convenience and efficiency, and
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  that's a really awesome thing, but not necessarily for
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  security. And hackers know that.
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  We've already seen examples of processing plants get shut down,
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  ransomware locking companies out of their system, livestock sales
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  interrupted. We have seen countless
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  situations, and we never think that it's going to be yes.
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  But imagine if your feed system didn't run for three days.
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  What would you do? Or if someone locked you out of
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  your bank account during shipping week, what would you
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  do? That's not a far fetched
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  scenario anymore and that's a little scary.
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  It's not just about big operations that are vulnerable.
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  It's not just the packing plants or the thousands and thousands
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  have had operations that are vulnerable.
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  It's small and mid sized farms. Actually, they can be easier
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  targets because we don't always have IT departments watching our
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  backs. So what is at stake with all of
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  this? You've got data, things like
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  herd records, customer lists, banking info, You've got your
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  equipment, think of your feeders, your irrigation, and
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  all of your tractors that run on software.
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  And then you've also got trust, which I think is something that
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  doesn't always get talked about. But whether you be a, whether
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  you're a very large corporation and something like that happens,
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  it makes the people in your direct work kind of just step
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  back and think a little bit. But then if you're a small
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  farmer or rancher and let's say you have a direct to beef
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  consumer operation and your website gets hacked, that also
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  might make your customers kind of sit back and be like, OK,
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  what's going on? So in other words, this isn't
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  just about data privacy. It is about the money that we
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  are making at the end of the day, the cattle that we are
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  taking care of and every single one of our livelihoods.
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  So what are we going to do about it?
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  I am not saying that we need to be hiring a cybersecurity firm
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  tomorrow, absolutely not. But there are some practical,
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  simple steps that every single operation can start taking #1
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  and I probably need to listen to this sometimes too.
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  But stronger passwords, not just 1234 or your dog's name, but
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  using unique passwords and specifically also changing them
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  periodically. That's where I need to listen.
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  Because guys, I think I have some accounts that have had the
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  same password on them since I was in middle school, if I'm
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  being completely honest. So preaching to the choir here
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  on that one. I need to get off of this
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  podcast and go change some of my passwords.
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  I'm pretty sure #2 turning on 2 factor authentication if it is
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  offered with that certain system.
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  And most systems that are housing are secure data have two
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  factor authentication. So things like your bank, your
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  e-mail, and any other software that you can turn it on for,
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  please go turn it on. It's so easy to do.
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  It's just going to send a text message or an e-mail with a
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  number to your phone or your e-mail, or you might download an
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  app for it. It is a godsend.
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  Please go turn it on #3 make sure that you're keeping your
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  software updated. I know it is extremely annoying
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  when those little reminders come across, but these updates, yeah,
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  sometimes they're bringing a new tech, new cool things, but most
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  of the time they're actually just fixing security holes.
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  A hole is found in the system, an update gets sent out, it
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  fixes it. So do not ignore them.
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  Don't keep putting it off #4 don't mix up your accounts.
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  Try and keep accounts separate where you can.
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  I know it's not avoidable in every situation, but try and do
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  it where you can and #5 back up your data, whether it is on a
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  hard drive or a secure cloud storage platform like Dropbox or
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  something like that. If your system gets hacked, you
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  will still have what you need. And this also goes out of
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  cybersecurity and into other aspects as well of it.
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  For me, we had a family friend that devastatingly lost their
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  home and part of their ranch in a really bad fire.
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  And one of the hardest things when we were recovering from
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  that fire in the initial days was the fact that we didn't have
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  any herd records. We didn't know what cattle we're
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  supposed to be where. We had some, but they weren't
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  like I think they were updated like 3 months prior to that.
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  So we didn't have any of the cabs that were on those
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  pastures. We didn't, we didn't have
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  anything. And it was really, really
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  difficult to figure out who was supposed to be where, what our
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  numbers were supposed to be at what our pasture levels were
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  like all of these things because it was kept in a notebook in the
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  office, in the house and we lost that.
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  So make sure that you are keeping things updated and, and
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  it's a clear, secure cloud storage folder as well.
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  And finally, one thing that is often overlooked, but make sure
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  that you are training your people.
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  If you have a spouse, kids, employees, whoever else is
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  touching these ranch accounts, make sure that they also know
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  everything that we talked about today and that the fact that,
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  you know, yes, they're still phishing emails that get sent
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  out with sketchy links or random apps that get downloaded if you
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  open a wrong browser or something like that.
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  But these hackers have gotten so smart, like extremely, extremely
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  smart over the past years. So keep your head on a swivel.
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  Make sure that you're staying up to date on all of those things,
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  and make sure that everyone around you also understands what
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  it looks like to have good cybersecurity hygiene.
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  And here's where the real shift came from.
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  You guys. We put locks on our front door.
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  I have a lock on my garage. I have a lock on my gates in my
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  backyard. We have locks on all of our
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  gates to all of our cattle pastures.
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  I have insurance on this house in case a fire happens.
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  But we rarely think about guarding our digital assets with
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  the same locks that we put on our physical ones.
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  The truth is cybersecurity is just another form of risk
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  management. It is no different than buying
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  mineral to prevent cattle health issues or having insurance on
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  your house in case of a fire. If you think.
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  About it that. Way it stops feeling like this
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  tech stuff and starts feeling part part of being a responsible
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  operator. So here's the take away for all
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  of you. The thing is, the more connected
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  that our industry gets, the more that we've got to take
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  cybersecurity extremely seriously.
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  You do not need to overhaul your whole system, but you do need to
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  start somewhere. This week, I encourage you to
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  pick one small step. Change your passwords.
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  Hello, that's me. I'm going to go change my
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  passwords after we get off of this podcast on some of my
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  things. Set up two factor authentication
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  and back up your records onto an online secure online format.
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  I know that this is not exciting work.
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  Honestly, I don't really find fixing a fence in the middle of
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  a snowstorm super exciting work. But I've got to do it to keep my
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  cattle in, to keep my ranch protected.
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  That's not exciting work, but I'm doing it.
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  So look at this the same way. Both of these things are
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  protecting what matters at the end of the day.
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  And here's the thing, your ranch can be hacked just like anything
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  else. The question is, Are you ready
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  for it when it happens or if it happens, how can you prevent it
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  from happening in the 1st place? Thank you all for listening to
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  another episode of the Cala USA Daily Podcast.
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  I hope you guys enjoyed this one and had some good takeaways.
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  I know I'm going to go change some passwords after getting off
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  of this podcast, but thank you guys so much for listening to
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  another episode. I hope you guys have a blessed
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  rest of your day and we will see you all tomorrow on another one.
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  We'll see you guys.