Top of the farm to-do list for 2026? Beefing up cybersecurity – Agweek

Author:

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.

CARRINGTON, N.D. — Agriculture is one of the top industries at risk of being targeted by cybercrime, Jeff Gale, NDSU Extension Ag and Natural Resources Agent for Foster County, told a crowd of several hundred on hand at Central Dakota Ag Day in mid-December.And it’s not just big, global agribusinesses that are at risk, explained Chris Sherman, CEO of Tech Support Farm, a Fargo-based company focused on technology security for agriculture. With ag becoming a more and more tech-driven industry, both on-farm and in the marketplace, the security of that technology has become more critical.

Sherman said ag has gone from relatively low tech to much more connected within the past 12 to 15 years.

Chris Sherman of Tech Support FarmJenny Schlecht / Agweek

“We’re looking at over 2 million sensors hooked to the internet, you know, in the state of North Dakota, in the next five years … whether it’s soil probes or, you know, telemetry, or any of that sort of thing,” he said. “It is really rapidly expanding.”The scope of cybercrime in agriculture is hard to determine. Sherman said the FBI estimates that 85 to 90% of cybersecurity breaches in agriculture are unreported, both because it can seem embarrassing and because it’s difficult to determine where to report such instances.”No. 1, we don’t want to talk about it,” he said. “And at the same time, who do you talk to?”But it’s important to talk about and to protect yourself, he said.

Sherman was the morning keynote speaker and led a seminar on

cybersecurity

at Central Dakota Ag Day, an annual event that provides education across a variety of ag subjects at the Carrington Research Extension Center. He gave a number of examples of big ag businesses being targeted by ransomeware attacks, like JBS and Dole, and specifically talked about the

Crystal Valley Co-op ransomware

attack that caused the business to come to a halt in 2021.”This shut them down and cost them millions and millions of dollars,” he said.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a federal agency within the Department of Homeland Security, has classified ag as one of 16 critical infrastructure industries. Sherman explained that agriculture has some specific characteristics that make it a target: Food is a national security issue.The technology used in the industry is accessible.Cybersecurity efforts on farms are often weak, both because systems weren’t built with security in mind and because many farmers neglect to boost the security they can by things like using more complicated passwords, Sherman said.There is money in agriculture, from the biggest businesses down to the smallest farms. Ag is a more than $1.5 trillion industry, with more than 1 million farms in the U.S., with an average of more than $1 million invested in equipment and access to more than $500,000 in cash at any given time, he said. “The big money is really on the bottom,” he said.

To the point of weak cybersecurity, Sherman said the rapid adoption of technology operations has meant that many applications have been built to solve a need but have not incorporated best-practices in security. The culture of trust in agriculture and rural communities has meant people become accustomed to foregoing security — both physical and cyber, and the demographics of the industry, with older-than-most average ages of operators, have played a part, too. Plus, many farms are using technology infrastructure made for residential use, rather than for running multi-million-dollar businesses. And finally, agriculture provides a lot of low-hanging fruit — many farms and businesses provide opportunity and access to capital.

If he could give only one piece of advice, Sherman said he’d tell people to invest in more secure email.”Stop using the personal email addresses and start using commercial grade emails,” he said.Instead, he advises purchasing a domain for email or using a commercial platform, like Google Workspace or Outlook, that are less prone to hacking. Many cybersecurity problems in agriculture stem from using cheap computers, cheap software and free email, he said.It’s also vital, he explained, to learn about phishing attacks and to not respond to phishing emails or texts. Investing in more secure, commercial computers and other technology infrastructure offers more protection. “We’re going with as cheap as possible and not thinking about it,” he said.

And using strong, original passwords that aren’t shared can be among the easiest, most vital actions. He said strong passwords contain combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. Plus, the longer the password, the harder it is to crack. If you use a password like smile123, he said, “they’ll breach that pretty quickly.” A password app, using biometrics or a pin, is a good way to keep track of passwords, in lieu of spreadsheets, notebooks or other options that can be found and used by someone else.

Jenny Schlecht is the director of ag content for Agweek and serves as editor of Agweek, Sugarbeet Grower and BeanGrower. She lives on a farm and ranch near Medina, North Dakota, with her husband and two daughters. You can reach her at [email protected] or 701-595-0425.