Business Clinic: What can I do to protect my farm business against cybercrime?

Whether you have a legal, tax, insurance, management or land issue, Farmers Weekly’s Business Clinic experts can help.

Will Oakes, account executive, with A-Plan Rural Insurance, highlights the risk and of and what can be done to protect against cybercrime.

See also: Business Clinic: how to get best value on vehicle insurance

Q. Our neighbouring farm was recently tricked out of several thousand pounds online.

I know cybercrime is on the rise and would like to know what the common risks are, and what I can do to help protect myself and the farm business?

A. Cyber criminals do not discriminate. The farming community and rural industries are becoming more reliant on technology – whether to increase efficiency, reduce costs, optimise production, purchase machinery or just the daily use of mobile devices and email.

The risk of losing money and data, or technology being denied or failing due to accidental or malicious interference, has never been greater.

Criminals look to exploit vulnerabilities in software and IT security to gain access into a network to steal personal, financial, or commercially sensitive information, typically for financial gain.

Or, they take the path of least resistance and “hack the human”, tricking the victim into transferring money or giving away their password, allowing the criminal to bypass security measures and log in as a legitimate user. 

Cyber criminals come in many different guises: 

• The phisher: Purports to be a “legitimate” email, tricking a victim into revealing security information and personal details
• The hacker: Exploits defects in software, weak passwords and previously stolen credentials
• The rogue employee: Disgruntled employees who know what data is stored and where it can be accessed
• The ransom artist: Installs malicious software, known as ransomware, to block access to files and devices, and threatens to publicly release data unless paid a ransom
• The social engineer: Often through phishing, phone calls, or fake social media accounts, they manipulate a victim into performing a task, such as installing malicious software or giving away credentials.

High-profile cases such as the recent ransomware attack on luxury Cotswolds farm shop Daylesford Organic make great news headlines, but cybercrime is also a very real and growing threat for smaller businesses.

Most farm and rural businesses store personal and financial information on employees, tenants, growers, merchants and so on; or business-critical and commercially sensitive information. It needs protecting.

Where IT functions are being outsourced, consideration must be given to the security and privacy practices of these third parties, and what impact it could have on your business if you suffer a cyber incident.

What can I do to protect my business?

If you fall victim to cybercrime, then your business could face financial loss, reputational damage, operational downtime, legal action and fines.

There are plenty of steps you can take, including: 

• Conduct regular security assessments and update IT software
• Regularly review employees’ access and administration rights
• Implement multi-factor authentication and update passwords regularly. Don’t re-use passwords
• Educate employees on cyber threats
• Be prepared! Create a response plan in case of attack
• Back up your data and segregate it from the main network. Test backups
• Maintain physical security, restricting access to data and portable equipment
• Transfer the risk with cyber insurance.

Cyber-attacks are costly and complex. Without in-house expertise, budget, resource and experience to handle such events, a victim is left not only out of pocket, but with an overwhelming sense of panic and distress.  

Cyber insurance, typically costing from £250 a year for small and medium enterprises, provides peace of mind with the necessary financial protection, and 24/7 access to a team of “emergency service” incident responders (cyber forensic specialists, legal counsel, and crisis communication) to support you when the worst happens.

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