Market Segment
Food and agriculture are critical infrastructures and are responsible not only for the food supply, but also for the production and distribution of non-food farm products such as fiber, oils, and animal feed production as well as services such as watershed protection. Both sectors have consolidated over the past two decades. The food chain is highly complex and therefore must be constantly protected against cascading effects that can cause disruptions to the cross-connections that support critical infrastructures such as the power grid and water/wastewater. In this way, a cyber event can quickly become a power grid event, which can quickly become a food systems and water event – all at the speed of electrons in the cybernet.
As the food and agriculture industries become more digitally connected and automated, new resources and emerging threats are bound to emerge. Our nation’s enemies are becoming more and more sophisticated. Below the actual war threshold, the types of threats that can be carried by malicious actors are particularly worrying. The food and agriculture sectors need to become both more cautious and confident. Recent ransomware and other forms of cyberattacks have made it clear that our nation’s enemies view the food and agriculture sectors as an opportunity target for exploitation. Food security, food defense and cybersecurity are now inextricably intertwined and will need to be addressed comprehensively through sound planning and flexible operations. In this way, our food source can continue to be the safest, most diverse and abundant food source possible.
Imagine a nationwide outbreak of food poisoning every minute. You check and double-check the processing records; all batches of cooked chicken look good, so what’s the problem?
What you may not know is that a hacker has infiltrated and altered critical operational processes and accessed them remotely via an unsecured IoT device. Conclusion? An undercooked and dangerous chicken party. But you don’t know which parties were affected, so there’s a nationwide recall.
Historically, the financial and retail industries have received the most attention from cybercriminals and been most affected by data breaches. More recently, healthcare and government systems are subject to cyberattacks, and as these sectors improve their defenses, cybercriminals will turn to softer, easier targets and the food industry will be out like a sore thumb.
Part of the problem is that the industry believes it is immune. Why would someone attack a food company? National and international criminal organizations often target the food chain for large-scale adulteration, counterfeiting, fraud, theft and smuggling; even hacking the systems of storage and distribution companies to upgrade counterfeit products and add them to the legitimate supply chain.
There are different types of cyber attacks a food company can be exposed to. Perhaps your product advantage has been neutralized because a competitor has released a counterfeit product using stolen intellectual property acquired by hackers. Or, a hacker may have stolen sensitive business and supply chain information from one of your major retail customers and demanded a large ransom. In any case, it is essential to be on top of risk management.
Advances in agriculture-related technology have come with an increase in cyber threats. Before the rise of multinational consolidated farms, most of the world’s food was produced by small farmers and farmers serving a local community. Today, the same economies of scale that fueled the rise of large corporations in other industries apply to food production and distribution. These economies of scale depend on automation.
Our goal is to help people in the best way possible. This is a basic principle in every case and cause for success. contact us today for a free consultation.
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