Why agriculture has become the focus of cyberattacks

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Why agriculture has become the focus of cyberattacks

A cybersecurity professor says exposed weaknesses in protecting ag data has left the entire industry vulnerable. 

George Grispos an assistant professor with the University of Nebraska at Omaha says agriculture is critical infrastructure. “We’ve seen now with the pandemic, you cut out the food supply you can bring down a whole lot of other things with it,” he says. “Cyber criminals are thinking ‘hey, hang on if I have a farmer out in a rural area that is not tech savvy and I can take them out, what ripple effect is it going to have.’”

He tells Brownfield the industry can be an easy target because more technology is being introduced at a rapid pace. “As more technology moves into farming equipment, they’re becoming a sub target because security is an afterthought,” Grispos says.

He says some attacks have indicated that foreign powers are responsible.

George Grispos, University of Nebraska at Omaha:

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