b'CybersecurityWE LIVE IN Adigital agealmost everyone has an email, a social media account or a credit card. With any of those, youre at risk for a cybersecurity attack.Starts First withAs agriculture moves into a new, digital age filled with data, cloud-based services, and more, cybersecurity needs to be a bigger discussion. Unfortunately, the more the sector digitizes, the bigger a target you become for a cybercriminal attack.Awareness, Why do you rob banks? Thats where the money is, says Richard Harknett, professor of political science and director of the school of public and international affairs at the University of Cincinnati. In cyberspace, for many actors, the primary moti-Then Education vation is that there is money to be made on the criminal side. However, the opportunities also extend to national security, so we the pursuit of cybersecurity has to be concerned with both motivations.Understand the MotivesAs agriculture dives into a digital age, While theres differences between national cybersecurity, there its time to learn the risks.Alex Martin are adversaries of the U.S. who recognize the important part agricultureand thus, the seed industryplays globally. By disrupting agriculture in one country, you can disrupt economic competitors. According to the Cybersecurity Guide, stopping one portion during harvest can reverberate throughout the entire industry, resulting in price spikes or shortages. There are plenty of examples of food industry disruptions, including a ransomware attack that disrupted several of JFC Internationals IT systems, which impacted its Europe group and even a ransomware attack on JBS, the worlds largest meat com-pany, which crippled a large portion of the meat supply chain during 2021.The attack on JBS affected facilities in Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Texas and stopped operations at 13 different plants, according to the Cybersecurity Guide. Unfortunately, this set off a rapid effect. Wholesale meat prices soared as the balance between supply and demand immediately became out of whack, the 68/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2022'