Keep your farm data safe: what you need to know

As livestock enterprises increasingly turn to storing their financial and farm management data digitally, producers and small businesses need to take action to protect themselves against cyber-attack.

According to ISC’s Chief Technology Officer, Julian Moorhouse, protecting your business data against cyber-attack is a simple yet necessary step all producers should take as they get their records in order this new year.

“ISC takes great care to keep industry’s data safe and secure, including data from the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), Livestock Production Assurance (LPA), electronic National Vendor Declarations (eNVDs), Livestock Data Link (LDL) and animal health data,” Julian said.

“However, producers and other agribusinesses need to make sure that they keep their own farm data safe to protect their businesses’ reputation, assets and sensitive information.”

“There are a few straightforward things producers can do to make sure their data is secure on their devices and the hot weather is the perfect time to take these steps.”

For producers or small businesses who are just getting started with data security, Julian recommends taking the following five steps to ensure your online information is secure:

1. Back up your data 

Creating a copy (a back-up) of your important business data is essential to make sure it can be recovered in case it is deleted or corrupted. 

Your back-up should be stored in a separate location to the original data. It is recommended that you store your back-up on a cloud service provider or if that’s not possible, on a secure external hard drive or computer. 

Backing up your data frequently is strongly advised. 

2. Use passwords 

ISC has recently increased the required strength of passwords to be used to log in to your LPA, NLIS and other industry accounts and producers are also encouraged to use stronger passwords to keep their other business data safe.

For each platform or website you use for your business, you should have a different password that uses a combination of letters, numbers and symbols and is around 12–16 characters in length. This free password generator can provide you with passwords of an appropriate length that you can use to keep your data safe.

Don’t use your name or date of birth as a password and don’t keep the default password given to you as your password.

You can use a password manager to keep track of all your different passwords. Most internet browsers come with a password manager to save your difficult-to-remember passwords, but for businesses with multiple staff members, paid password managers such as Last Pass or 1Password can prove extremely useful.

3. Protect your data from malware and ransomware

Malicious software (malware) is software or web content that attempts to gain access to your data in order to view data, monitor activity, or steal personal information such as credit card numbers or passwords. Ransomware is a form of malware which encrypts your files and demands payment from the victim to restore access to their data. 

To protect your business from malware and ransomware, you should install antivirus software and a firewall on all computers and laptops used in your operations. You should discourage staff from installing applications from suspicious sites onto any devices or computers used in the business and limit the use of USB drives in your work. 

4. Keep your mobile device safe

Keep data on your mobile device secure by turning on password protection. It is also recommended that you switch on automatic system and app updates on your device to ensure critical security updates are made to protect your device from a cyber-attack. 

5. Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA/MFA)

Two-factor authentication (2FA, also known as multi-factor authentication or MFA) provides an additional layer of security that prevents unauthorised users from accessing your data. Whenever possible, opt to turn on 2FA on your devices and on all work and personal systems to minimise the chances of a data breach. 

6. Learn how to avoid phishing attacks

A phishing attack refers to any false or misleading communications pretending to be from a legitimate source, to try to steal information or money from you by tricking you into providing confidential information.

Read more about phishing attacks or access MLA and ISC’s A guide to protecting your farm data and information to learn how to avoid falling victim to phishing attacks.

Julian’s top tips for keeping your data safe

1. Back up your data
2. Use passwords
3. Install antivirus software
4. Keep your mobile device safe
5. Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)
6. Learn how to avoid phishing attacks.