b'Guide says. Farms and ranches could not get their animals toWHERE market, and the resulting oversupply drove wholesale pricesON THE WEBdown. Restaurants and resellers could not get processed and packaged meat. The corresponding scarcity drove consumer prices skyward.With the stakes high because of the need to maintain a stable food supply, JBS felt it necessary to acquiesce to the hackers demand and pay the ransom. After negotiating with the hackers, JBS paid the criminals $11 million in bitcoin, the Guide concludes.If you think it wont happen to your business, you might be rightbut awareness is the first step to halting cyber-attacks in their tracks.The bottom line is: do you have anything of value? Harknett asks. I would hope if youre a successful business that you do, so one of the things you have to think about is whats the value core? Whats your comparative advantage? Thats your crown jewel, andWant more tips on Cybersecurity? Watch our conversation with Richard at:if its valuable to you, its valuable to some other nefarious actor.https://youtu.be/DA8PrY5a6Z0For many companies, production efficiency is a big value brought to the table that cybercriminals look to exploit. Just likeYou dont tend to think about air conditioning and cyberse-the attack on JBS, you mostly see this with a ransomware attack.curity attacks at the credit card level, he says. But that shows What theyre going after there is leveraging the fact that if Ithe level of interconnectedness that exists.disrupt this most valuable aspect of your business and I have youVulnerability is the key idea agribusinesses need to be aware over the barrel, then maybe youre going to pay that ransom heof the more they work digitally. And Harknett says finding vul-says. Its an extortion approach to make illicit profit. Over thenerabilities happens fast. last decade, its been more in the data side, where the criminalAgriculture needs to leverage this technology for greater cybermarket was really about exfiltrating data and selling it onproductivity gains, but as you do that as a business, you also the black market. have to understand youre taking on all the vulnerabilities that are All that is to say, if youre a profitable agribusiness, youre inbuilt in this interconnected space, he says. the line of target for a ransomware attack.Be intentional about your adoption of technology, but dont Typically, though, Harknett says cybercriminals arent lookingrely on hope as your risk management plan and hope It wont to completely cripple society. As an example, he mentions thehappen to me!Colonial pipeline shutdown in 2021 in the Eastern U.S.Im not a big fan of hope as a business plan, Harknett says. One of the things that was interesting is that the criminalYou need to start to understand where the vulnerabilities are gang involved with this overseas actually came back as a Whoa,and assume vulnerability. sorry, we didnt mean to do that,they kind of overshot, heAsk questions like, Am I buying more domestic tech? and says. Cybercriminals try to stay below the level of disruptionWhat kind of contracts do I have if Im using webservices for that would bring in actors like the U.S. Department of Justice ormy data collection, and then pry into your vendors background Defense Department. If theyre going to make money, they wantas well. Ask: What backups do they have? Are they prone to to keep making money. disruption? Do they have any obligation to pay you back for that After learning the motives behind cyberattacks, the next stepdisruption? for agribusinesses is to know what to prevent when workingNot only that but helping your business employees understand online.the risks of different things such as spam emails is important. Most breaches come from human authorization of unauthor-Learning and Adjusting ized access, Harknett says. Its the clicking of a malware link. Knowing whats most vulnerable in your company and how itRight now, theres a trend towards invoice malware. can be exploited is the first step to understanding cybersecurityIn this instance, an invoice is sent to someone in your com-attacks, but the bigger of an online or digital presence you have,pany who thinks: Hey, I want to pay that invoice, but unfortu-the more vulnerable you leave yourself.nately, theres malware embedded in those invoices. Ensuring Why? Cyberspace is an inherently interconnected space.simple practices, such as scrolling over the link and checking the We cant take this notion that no ones ever going to findemail address that sent you the email is important.us, Harknett says. Cyberspace is vast and you can get to busi- It requires employees to have cyber awareness, Harknett nesses through different means. says. You dont need to become cybersecurity experts, but you Constantly, youre in contact with customers, other businessdo need to build up a resiliency into your business knowing that partners and business competitors. Another example Harknetta cyberattack is possible.shares is a data breach that happened in 2013 to Target storesBy understanding and asking questions about your vulner-across the U.S. The breach came through the HVAC supplier ofabilities online, youre one step closer to bettering your cyberse-Target.curity.SW70/ SEEDWORLD.COMOCTOBER 2022'