Creating an On-Farm Network Map
Now that you’ve been introduced to a number of ways you can improve your cybersecurity, let’s look more in-depth at one specific tool - creating an on-farm network map. The way your farm network is set up can make the difference between being ‘open for business’ for bad guys or being able to conduct your business with a lower risk of a cybersecurity incident.
Understanding your farm network typology can help you understand your farm operations at a deeper level. This can help improve your cybersecurity and it can also help you better manage your bottom line and your overall farm business risk. If you know your farm’s digital map, you can know where your vulnerabilities are located and how an issue in one part of your operation could impact other systems.
Creating a very simple farm network typology map can also help you when you’re talking to IT or cybersecurity service providers. They can use the map you make to work with you to plan the most cost-effective approach that makes sense for your business. It’s an incredibly handy tool that you can use to create effective cybersecurity policies and cyber fire drill plans - which will be talked about in more detail later in this module.
Any farm that uses digital agricultural technologies (sensors, control systems, precision agriculture equipment, business data systems) also has additional devices on its network. For example, a farm network might look something like this:
The bigger and more complex a farm network, the more vulnerabilities there are that could be exploited to gain unauthorized access.
If you want to go more in-depth on how to make a network typology map for your farm, check out this worksheet:
PDF document 769KB
Having even a basic network typology map for your farm can help you think about your network more clearly and speak, in a more informed way, with IT service people, or a cybersecurity professional.
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