Ensuring food security in SA through enhanced cyber security for farmersCarey van Vlaanderen, CEO, ESET Southern Africa.
Van Vlaanderen says the threat is certainly not unique to South Africa, as a report from the University of Cambridge found that smart farming technology such as automatic crop sprayers and robotic harvesters could be hacked and the probability with which this could happen is increasing.
While addressing cyber security challenges in agriculture can be complex, she adds that there are steps agriculture firms can take to reduce their exposure, limit the damage of an existing attack and position their employees as the first line of defence. “A necessary first step in strengthening defences is to identify where critical infrastructure is vulnerable to attack. This will be different for each business.