An occupational hazard for the career I’ve chosen in the modern age is spending a LOT of time in front of a screen. I guess beside working for a non-profit, trade association, I could be classified as a ‘knowledge worker’. Someone that absorbs a lot of information from a lot of different sources and tries to distill it and transform it in to knowledge that you as a cotton ginner can use.

I was at the Mid South Farm and Gin Show and other functions in Memphis last week and played a lot of Catch-up over the weekend. I’m finding more and more sites where links are broken. News stories that were fresh over the weekend have links that don’t work or sites that I go to regularly for information are broken. They typically come back shortly and very little is being said about it but it is beginning to appear to me that along with a kinetic war in Ukraine, Russia, China or others are taking the opportunity to up their hacking game.

Most of it seems rather benign since the sites are back up quickly but that doesn’t happen by chance. Behind the scenes there has been a lot of planning and testing to help counter such attacks. Are you ready?

Late last year, Secretary Vilsack warned that cyber attackers were attempting to infiltrate our infrastructure and agricultural activities specifically. I know several organizations in the Cotton Trade that spent a LOT of time and effort to make sure the cotton would flow. With the most recent activity we all need to make sure we do the things we can to keep the bad guys out and our businesses intact.

I ran across this article and it’s a great place to start. “Shields Up: 10 Proactive Steps Employers Can Take to Prevent Russian Cybersecurity Attacks“. It discusses the things you’ll want to start with to help protect your organization. Most of us are small and rely on outside help with our computers and systems. Now would be a GREAT time to get with them to make sure you have a plan to keep the bad guys out and another plan to recover if they got in.

I’m not trying to be Chicken Little I promise. And I can pretty much guarantee that no one in Russia or China or wherever is out to get XYZ Cotton Gin in Hometown, GA. These guys use shotgun approaches and let the shrapnel find the unprotected spots. All I’m asking is that you take a few minutes to read the linked article and think about what would happen if that one computer you most relied on got hit with a ransomware attack or a denial of service attack took you offline.