The bipartisan Cybersecurity in Agriculture Act, introduced by Reps. Zach Nunn (R-Iowa) and Don Davis (D-North Carolina), aims safeguard the agricultural economy from cyber threats by harnessing the expertise of land-grant universities.
The bill would establish five Regional Agriculture Cybersecurity Centers across the country to bolster cyberattack readiness, enhance response capabilities and accelerate recovery efforts in the agriculture sector.
“We’ve already seen hackers shut down grain handling and meat processing operations with just a few lines of code, stealing American agricultural technology or holding our food supply for ransom,” Nunn said in a press release. “By leveraging Iowa’s leadership in agricultural and cyber defense innovation at institutions like Iowa State, we’re putting the nation’s top minds to work protecting the backbone of America’s economy: our farmers.”
Modern agriculture increasingly relies on digital technologies to plant, harvest, monitor livestock and distribute food. As this reliance grows, so does the risk of cyberattacks targeting America’s food supply chain. In 2021, ransomware attacks disrupted Iowa’s NEW Grain Cooperative and Minnesota’s Crystal Valley Cooperative, halting operations and threatening supply chains. That same year, a cyberattack on meatpacking giant JBS forced temporary shutdowns across North America.
“Cybersecurity threats remain a top danger to our agriculture and rural communities,” Davis said. “Our local farms need cybersecurity protections to continue operating and working with our top-of-the-line university system in North Carolina, which means a local and reliable partner in the fight against cyberattacks.”
The Cybersecurity in Agriculture Act would counter growing cyber threats directly by:
- Funding university-led research on advanced cybersecurity systems for the agriculture sector
- Developing dedicated security operations centers to monitor and respond to cyber threats
- Designing sector-specific cybersecurity tools, including threat detection and intrusion prevention systems
- Building live testbeds for agricultural cybersecurity technologies
- Conducting training and simulation exercises with agriculture industry stakeholders
