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Hackers Target U.S. Farms and Food Companies
Taylor Hawes
December 29, 2025
🔎 Cyber Watch 🔎
Hackers Target U.S. Farms and Food Companies
Cyberattacks against U.S. farms and food companies are increasing as agriculture relies more on connected systems. Modern farming uses software for planting, irrigation, storage, and supply tracking. Many of these systems lack strong security controls. Security researchers report that agriculture recorded one of the highest year-over-year increases in cyber incidents worldwide. Attacks include ransomware, phishing, and unauthorized access to operational systems. U.S. lawmakers and industry groups are now calling for better funding, training, and sector-specific cyber support to reduce exposure.
Key takeaway
Agriculture is becoming a frequent target due to increased use of connected systems.
Ransomware and phishing remain the most common attack methods.
New policy proposals focus on training, research, and sector readiness.
🎙️ Tech Briefing On‑Air 🎙️
Cyberresilience and Internal Audit
The ISACA Podcast episode titled Cyberresilience and Cybersecurity highlights the role internal audit plays in strengthening organizational cybersecurity. The discussion explains how growth in cloud, mobile, and outsourced services expands the attack surface. It also outlines the traditional “three lines of defense” model: the first line (operational teams), the second line (risk and security leaders), and the third line (internal audit). Internal audit not only reviews security controls, but also reports to boards and audit committees when controls are weak or missing. This role is becoming more important as legal and financial liability for cyber issues increases.
Takeaways: The episode brings up the importance of cyberresilience in today’s environments. It also highlights the importance of internal audits and how can they can be a key activity in safeguarding your cloud, mobile, and outsourced services.
🤝 Partner Intel 🤝
iProyal
iProyal is a proxy service that offers residential, mobile, ISP, and datacenter IPs for online research and monitoring tasks. The service is used for activities such as web scraping, price tracking, ad verification, and brand protection. iProyal provides traffic-based pricing, which suits short-term projects and testing use cases. Users point to flexible plans, broad location coverage, and support for rotating and sticky sessions. The platform is often chosen by teams that need controlled access to geo-restricted content without long-term contracts.
🤖 AI Runtime 🤖
NIST and MITRE Launch AI Centers for Manufacturing and Cybersecurity
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has teamed up with MITRE to create two new AI research centers focused on U.S. manufacturing and critical infrastructure cybersecurity. The $20 million initiative will support development of AI-driven tools to boost productivity in factories and improve real-time cybersecurity defenses for essential systems. These centers aim to translate cutting-edge AI research into practical solutions that strengthen economic security, anticipate threats, and support U.S. competitiveness in vital industries. The partnership builds on NIST’s broader work to lead in AI standards while tapping MITRE’s deep expertise in technology evaluation and public-private collaboration.
đź“Š By the Numbers đź“Š
49% of organizations rely on a centralized repository to manage dependencies.
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