Cyber Evolution

Cyber Evolution

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
How much time do you as a Farmer spend on your laptop or your smart phone and more importantly what are you doing while you are using those devices? As it turns out, the amount of information farmers move around the internet has more than tripled. Jeremy Hoffmann, Chair of the Cyber Security Program at Des Moines Area Community College says the need for protecting our information needs to be a bigger priority than it is.Hoffmann says there are questions producers need to ask about their data security. “the biggest thing is get as much training on the equipment and the software that you are using. Vendors are more than happy to spend a lot of time with it. also find out where they are storing the data. Is it being stored locally on your computer where you need to have multiple backups. Is it being stored in the cloud where people might have access to it, like other companies who for example might be finding out what kind of seed you are using because it is not theirs is and they want to find out yield data. Then is the company selling that data to other vendors?”

Your security needs to evolve with your information. Data storage is no longer in your file cabinet, where you control who sees it. It is more like your file cabinet is unlocked and so is your front door, and the only one guarding it is a plastic army man. Your security is as important as your inputs and equipment.

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