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Cultivating Cyber Resilience: Strengthening Iowa's Agricultural Sector Through Innovative Partnerships and Cybersecurity Education

Alexis Stevens and Madeline Schultz

Summary

Agriculture is one of 16 critical infrastructure sectors for the U.S. economy and national security. Cyberattacks on Iowa’s agribusinesses increased the urgency to secure farm and rural business cyber ecosystems. Responding to these forces of change, the ISU Extension and Outreach Farm Management Team (FMT) developed a partnership with the ISU Center for Cybersecurity Innovation and Outreach to help farmers increase cybersecurity literacy and proactively manage cyberthreats. We began with a train-the-trainer workshop conducted by CyIO. This laid the groundwork for collaboration. We delivered cyber lessons to 1,482 farmers at 82 in-person events and 196 farmers through four webinars. Pus, 953 people accessed our new publications and videos online. After attending a cybersecurity lesson at farmland leasing meetings, survey respondents indicated 50 percent intended to make changes to home or business to protect from cyberattacks. Women responding to surveys about Annie’s Project cybersecurity lessons indicated 90 percent discussed cybersecurity with family, 60 percent took one or more actions to increase cybersafety, and 50 percent accessed resources. The quality of the speakers, materials, and resources were rated as ‘somewhat high’ or ‘high’ by 100 percent of Extension Week webinar survey respondents. Survey respondents at the cybersecurity on the farm conference indicated 100 percent gained knowledge on all four topics and wanted more “Practical tools… low cost or free.” FMT has an important role in addressing an issue growing in importance. When farmers increase cybersecurity awareness and implement proactive risk management steps, the agricultural industry can be more resilient to cyberattacks and improve food security for all Iowans.

Details

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