6 Ways To Build a Cybersecurity Plan For Your Farm
August 2, 2021 Cybersecurity has been in the headlines in recent months. The Colonial Pipeline hacked and shutdown, and JBS USA shuttered by hackers affecting the nation’s meat supply. Cyber experts warn that critical infrastructure, and even the food supply, is vulnerable to being targeted by hackers seeking valuable information or ransoms to get back online.
But what about a small farm business? Too small potatoes to be a target, right? According to Lauri May Baker, an Associate Professor of Agricultural Education and Communication with UF/IFAS, think again. No company or individual should shrug off online threats and should take precautions to avoid being a victim.
“The first best practice is to develop a cybersecurity plan,” Baker says. “Think about where you are online and where your threat issues might be.”
Cybersecurity can be complicated, but the Federal Communications Commission has a planning guide specific for small businesses. Take some time to read it and create a plan for your business.
Recently, Baker posted a blog with other best practices to help secure your online business presence.
Here are some key takeaways for building a solid cybersecurity plan.
1. Educate yourself and your employees about cybersecurity.
• Gather your employees for an initial discussion about the importance of cybersecurity and how you plan to address it.
• Make it everyone’s job to be a part of the cybersecurity planning process. This may require a shift in culture for your business if this hasn’t been a priority before. Like any culture change, this will take time, but it is an important part of making your business secure from cyber threats.
2. Use anti-malware software and keep it updated.
• There are many options available online. Explore your options and make sure you have anti-malware software on all work devices. Make sure you have all computers set to update the software automatically.
3. Store or backup your data using cloud storage.
• Reputable cloud storage vendors have high security standards and built-in safeguards to protect your data from loss due to a cyber attack.
• Cloud storage is often more affordable for small businesses than investing in your own hardware to store and backup your business data.
• Cloud storage solutions (like Dropbox or OneDrive) also include tools that make file sharing and collaboration easier.
• If file sharing and collaboration are not needed, there are affordable cloud backup services that can maintain online backups of your data in case of catastrophic loss.
4. Passwords matter!
• Access to all computers and Wi-Fi networks should require a password.
• Passwords should be a minimum of eight characters in length and complex enough that it would be difficult for an attacker to guess or otherwise discover them (Grassi et al., 2017).
5. Commit to regular updates and upgrades of software, computers, and malware protection.
• When updates or patches to existing software are released, it is often in response to known bugs or a newly identified security threat.
• While older versions of software may remain functional for your business, they may not receive security updates from the vendor.
• Make time in your and your employee’s schedules to regularly update software. Updates to software and operating systems can often be scheduled to occur outside of active business hours.
6.Protect your data.
• Evaluate who needs access to information. If someone does not require access to all data to do their job, then limit their access to what they actually need.
• Check with your bank and/or credit card processor to make sure you have the most up-to-date anti-fraud services.
• If possible, have a dedicated device that collects payments. Ideally this device would not be one you use to search the web.
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