Cyber Threats in Agriculture and the Food Industry

Abstract

A cyber threat is a harmful act meant to steal, corrupt, or undermine an organization's digital stability. At present cyber threats in agriculture and food industry is a rising concern because farming is becoming more dependent on computers and Internet access. The attacks that fall under this category include denial of service attacks, computer viruses. Growing food demand and shortage of skilled labours have necessitated for the adoption of digital agriculture. The major challenge is to prevent it from cyber threats for successful implementation. As ransomware hackers are increasingly likely to target food supply chain, the food industry is experiencing an increase in cyber-security threats, which might result in business interruptions. Due to the fragile nature of the food supply, the entire food sector needs to be protected . In this chapter, major issue on cyber threats, challenges of cyber-security, some notable cyber-attacks, and cyber-security solutions for the food/agriculture industry are discussed in detail.