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A one-sized-fits-all answer doesn’t exist to protect ag from cyberattacks

A cyber security professor says there is no silver bullet that will protect agriculture from cyber-attacks.

George Grispos is with the University of Nebraska at Omaha and says every stakeholder needs to get involved. “First of all, it needs to start at the top.  We’re going to need legislation, regulation saying hey, this is an important part of our economy, we need to secure it.”

He calls it an “ecosystem of security” and tells Brownfield it must include manufactures who provide software to farmers. “You buy a tractor: let’s go over everything, you need an antivirus for example, let’s go with something like that because obviously controls haven’t been regularly defined or you have to regularly update your tractor every two to three months or whatever.”

He says cost is problematic. “To throw this at them right now would be a big thing.  It is a cost effort.  Someone who is producing tons of corn doesn’t have a single tractor they’re going to have multiple tractors and multiple machinery that could be connected to the internet as well.” 

Grispos says another problem is manufactures could benefit from the cost of protection software at the expense of security.