An attack on a hog operation has a professor calling for the agriculture industry to step up cybersecurity.
Ali Dehghantanha, Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity & Threat Intelligence at the University of Guelph’s Cyber Science Lab said a hog farm is the first in Ontario to face a ransom demand from hackers and the first to demand animal welfare improvements, not money.
Dehghantanha said agriculture is about five years behind the curve in cybersecurity.
He said his lab has been asked to look into 20 cybersecurity issues reported from southern Ontario in the first half of 2023 and said more are coming because ransomware has become easier to acquire.
He said the first step should be setting up a committee of industry representatives, technology experts, and others to design cybersecurity standards “rooted in the reality of the industry.”
