June 28, 2023 • 28 mins
With great power comes great responsibility, and in the world of technology, that means being prepared for cybersecurity threats.
In this episode, Dr. Lauri Baker, co-founder of the Center for Rural Enterprise Engagement, highlights the importance of having a robust cybersecurity plan, educating yourself and your employees, and investing in the right tools to protect your electronic data at home or work. Discover best practices for staying safe in today's digital landscape and learn about malware protection and cloud storage solutions to safeguard your valuable data and maintain customer trust.
Resources:
Online publication on cybersecurity: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/WC416
Blog post on cybersecurity: https://ruralengagement.org/2021/06/24/selling-safe-best-practices-for-cybersecurity-for-your-small-rural-ag-business/
Social media toolkit: https://ruralengagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Cybersecurity-Social-Media-Series.zip
Transcripts available here: https://piecenter.com/media/podcast/#transcript
Are you an educator? The Science by the Slice podcast aims to inform diverse audiences about important issues in agriculture, natural resources, and public health. Check out our learning guides that were created as an educational tool to facilitate discussions related to the topics presented in podcast episodes. Download the learning guides here: https://piecenter.com/media/podcast/learn/
Music "Sweetly" by Blue Dot Sessions at https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Blue_Dot_Sessions/Glacier_Quartet/Sweetly/ Under CC BY license Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Music "Paean" by Robert John at https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Robert_John/paean/paean/ Under CC BY license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
The views, information, or opinions expressed by guest speakers on Science by the Slice are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily represent those of the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education or the University of Florida.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ricky Telg (00:04):
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (00:33):
Welcome to Science by the Slice I'm Phillip
Stokes, Education Coordinatorwith the PIE Center. It seems
that the world has entered a newphase of digital dependence,
software and systems are growingmore complex, we are becoming
more connected to each otherthrough virtual spaces. And all
of this can provide value tocompanies and consumers alike.
(00:58):
In fact, what we're doing rightnow is an example of this in
action. In essence, I'm talkingto you through a digitally
recorded audio file that wasuploaded to a podcast hosting
service. So people can then findit in a directory and listen to
it on a podcast app, which mighthave been automatically
(01:18):
downloaded to your device oncethe episode was published
because you subscribe. By theway, please do subscribe. So all
of that can happen because ofhow connected we are through the
Internet. The Internet and theprograms that rely on it are
powerful, and with great powercomes great responsibility. And
(01:39):
that responsibility falls on allof us. As we engage in powerful
internet-based activities, it'sour responsibility to be
vigilant of potentialcyberattacks. So today's episode
is all about the things you cando to protect your business or
personal internet-connectedsystems from cyberattacks now,
(02:01):
like today, measures you cantake right away. And to share
this with you, I'm joined by Dr.
Lauri Baker, Associate Professorof Agricultural Communication at
the University of Florida, andaffiliate faculty member of the
UF/IFAS PIE Center. Dr. Bakeralso co created the Center for
Rural Enterprise Engagement orCREE a faculty driven
(02:24):
interdisciplinary researchcenter that serves as a
generator and source ofknowledge about new media
marketing in an effort to enablerural and agriculture based
businesses to flourish in everchanging environments. Dr. Baker
and I discuss the importance ofhaving a robust cybersecurity
plan, educating yourself andyour employees and investing in
(02:47):
the right tools to protect yourelectronic data at home and at
work.
Well, Dr. Lauri Baker, thank youso much for being on the PIE
Center's podcast Science by theSlice, of course, you know about
the podcast pretty well as youare a an affiliated faculty
(03:09):
member of the PIE Center. So I'mjust want to give you a chance
to introduce yourself and tellus a little bit more about who
you are and your differentresearch interests.
Lauri Baker (03:18):
Yeah, great. Happy to be here. Thanks for having
me. As you said, I am anaffiliate faculty member with
the PIE Center and my homedepartment is in Agricultural
Education and Communication. Andwhen I came back to Florida as a
faculty member in 2019, Ibrought with me a partner center
to the PIE Center, the Centerfor Rural Enterprise Engagement.
(03:39):
And so we work across multipleinstitutions at Kansas State
University here at theUniversity of Florida, as well
as the University of Minnesota.
And our goal really, is to helpsmall businesses, particularly
ag based businesses, usetechnology more efficiently to
connect with consumers to sellproducts to consumers, and to
(04:00):
engage in a positive way. Sothat really is the basis of a
lot of my research and extensionwork.
Phillip Stokes (04:10):
That's great.
And, you know, I'm thinkingabout the different technologies
and the different applicationsthat are available to
agribusinesses. And just smallbusinesses in general that
weren't around 10, 20, 30 yearsago. I mean, it's pretty
immense, how different it is,right? And so what are some of
those technologies and thosethings that business owners have
(04:31):
access to now?
Lauri Baker (04:34):
Absolutely. The landscape is really, really
changed in the last 10, in thelast 20 years, as you noted,
certainly, and one thing thathas really pushed a lot of
change related to technology wasthe pandemic. So there were
certainly a lot of negativesthat came out of it. And I know
you focused on that some in thispodcast previously. And we've
(04:55):
certainly done a lot of researcharound that. But there also were
some real positives, that camefrom that related to online
selling, in particular, havingthe opportunity to sell directly
to consumers. And many of themdid that for the very first
time. Some of them had been setup before. And actually, when we
started the center in 2015,online selling was something we
(05:18):
talked about a lot, as well associal media marketing and
conducted research in that area.
But many stakeholders weren'treally interested at that time.
But I guess we planted theseeds. And when the pandemic
happened, we got a lot of phonecalls saying, you remember when
you were trying to get me to setup an online shop, and I wasn't
that interested? Okay, so nowI'd really like to know how to
(05:40):
do that, and how to make thatwork. And some of our research
in other areas where we lookedat producers who were able to
survive the pandemic, for themost part, those were people
that were able to pivot fairlyquickly into some other sales
opportunity. And for many ofthem, that was a direct to
(06:00):
consumer marketing opportunity.
And so they, in some cases,actually saw greater sales than
they'd had pre pandemic, andwere able to connect more with
consumers, all through this newtechnology, or new versions of
the technology and newopportunities that came from a
(06:20):
situation that wasn'tnecessarily that positive.
Phillip Stokes (06:24):
Yeah, I'm thinking about, there are always
going to be some people who arekind of on the forefront of
accepting some of these newtechnologies, adopting some of
them. Most people unless you arereally forced to, you might, you
might wait until there's acircumstance that you really
have to respond to, and that wasthe pandemic, right? As you
said.
Lauri Baker (06:44):
Absolutely. And, and truthfully, pre pandemic, it
may not have been the bestbusiness decision for many
producers. But because peoplewere staying home and they
weren't headed to hotels andrestaurants, many of our
producers needed to come up withan alternative. And so there
were a lot of factors that kindof happened. At the same time,
(07:05):
consumers were also more willingto purchase things online, to
purchase directly from consumersand had more time to investigate
those things and explore whatopportunities were available.
Phillip Stokes (07:17):
So as business owners, and just individuals are
adopting some of these newtechnologies, and putting them
into practice into with theirbusiness, things move at a quick
pace. And so sometimes we're notalways prepared for some of the
consequences, some of the thingsthat come along with that,
potentially some of thosenegative things, as we talked
(07:37):
about. So today, we're talkingabout cybersecurity, of course,
and so. So why should businessowners, and just everyday people
who, you know, are connectedonline, why should we all be
concerned about cybersecurity?
Lauri Baker (07:54):
Absolutely, there are certainly some inherent
risks to any technology really,but particularly technology,
where you may be collecting orsharing personal data. In places
where you're purchasing aproduct online, or you're
selling a product online,there's an exchange of
information that happens in thatprocess. Sometimes you may not
(08:17):
be selling something directly orpurchasing something directly,
but you're still adding in yourbirthday when you create a
social media account, or you'readding in some details about
yourself or your children orthere are security questions on
your banking app that might leadto somebody finding more
information out about you. Andunfortunately, some people may
(08:41):
not have positive intentionswith using that information. So
we do have to be careful duringthese times. And I think the
more technology becomes justubiquitous in our lives, and
it's everywhere, we may start toget a little complacent. And
with that can come some risks.
And sometimes, small businessowners or individuals may think,
(09:04):
Well, I'm not really at risk,surely, they're going to attack
a large company where they canget a lot more money. I don't
really even have that much moneyin my business account or my
personal account. So I probablyam safe. Well, there certainly
are people that are going to gofor the biggest bang and try for
the larger companies. But thetruth is the larger companies
(09:27):
likely have full time ITprofessionals that are working
on their cybersecurity issues,they're much harder to get into.
And so hacker might make adecision to choose to attack a
lot of small businesses orindividuals as opposed to a
large one because unfortunately,many people are not protecting
(09:50):
themselves.
Phillip Stokes (09:53):
Yeah for sure.
And we were talking about thisyesterday, right. You know, us
working at UF you know, we havea whole IT team that might be
looking into some of thesethings. If you are kind of out
there by yourself, you don'thave those those teammates, and
those staff members maybelooking doing some of that work
for you. So what should peoplebe on the lookout for? What are
(10:13):
the types of cybersecuritythreats?
Lauri Baker (10:17):
Yeah, absolutely, we can kind of break down the
two cybersecurity threats intotwo categories, really phishing
or malware. And so phishingactually has been almost
mainstream, there have beenmovies kind of focused on those
kinds of issues. So people maybe more aware of those. But
phishing scams are essentiallywhere someone sends you an
(10:40):
email, a text, some form ofcommunication, It can even be a
telephone call, and tries to getyour information from you. And
through that, then they can useit in all sorts of different
ways depending on what kind ofinformation they have. So
phishing scams like that havegotten more advanced. So it used
(11:03):
to be we all kind of heard,well, somebody from Nigeria
sends you an email that you sendthem a million dollars, and
they'll send you back 2 million.
Well, they've gotten a lot moreadvanced since then. And so
things might come to your emailfor yourself or your employees.
And it may look prettylegitimate, it may have the name
of a company that you do use,but perhaps the extension is a
(11:27):
little bit different. And so ingeneral, through those phishing
scams, they might be able to getyour business information, they
might be able to get throughfirewalls and get your customers
information, depending on howadvanced it is. The other
category that we think about ismalware, and malware can be
(11:47):
attached to phishing scams, orit can come in a different way
more directly. But essentially,that's when a hacker can get
into your system, and launchsome form of malware. And the
viruses can do different typesof things the same as biological
viruses, right, they all havekind of a different intent. Some
(12:10):
of them are simply just designedto mess with you and your
organization and shut thingsdown just for fun on the event
of a hacker, but some of themcan be more destructive, and can
be designed to get into bankaccount information, and then
sell that online or use thatthemselves in another way, or
(12:31):
collect sensitive data andinformation, not only from you,
but from your customers from allof your contacts on an
individual level.
Phillip Stokes (12:42):
Lauri, phishing and malware have been around for
a long time, you know, about aslong as the internet has has
been around. And, you know, Ithink things are the landscapes
changing a little bit where it'swell known some of the some of
the hazards and some of therisks of being connected online
(13:02):
and some of the attacks thatpeople can receive. But of
course, you know, businesses, alot of times rely on this
interconnected web to do just todo all the work that they they
can, what is like the pulse kindof the the American pulse are
the pulse on cybersecuritythreats and some of the new
(13:22):
technologies that are now on thehorizon and here such as AI and
machine learning and such.
Lauri Baker (13:28):
Yeah, that's an excellent point. I think the
longer something has been out,right, the more comfortable we
get with it. And the more westart to think that, oh, well,
maybe there aren't very manyconcerns anymore. I know what
I'm looking for. I'm not goingto click on any weird emails.
And as you say, on an individualbasis, maybe some people
(13:50):
nationally, there's a bigdiscussion of kind of unplugging
and some people taking aconscious choice to move away
from social media, to maybe notallow their children to have
access to those things. Butyou're right, businesses may not
be able to do that it doesn'tnecessarily make sense for them,
(14:11):
particularly when consumers areasking for more opportunities,
more point of sale options,quicker sales, easier sales,
which all come with newtechnology and new software. And
a national survey with a globalmarket research firm recently
looked at people's fears relatedto artificial intelligence. And
(14:35):
while the overall concern wassimilar for artificial
intelligence, as wascybersecurity and malware and
data breaches, the level ofconcern was much higher for some
of those artificial intelligencepieces. And I think in looking
at that and seeking to kind ofunderstand that I think some of
it may be that fear of theunknown and similar the way we
(14:59):
talked about online sellingbeing a positive of the
internet, there certainly aresome other positives related to
artificial intelligence. OurCREE group actually has a blog
post on five different AI toolsthat you can use to help your
business be more efficient. Iwas actually in a meeting
yesterday and somebody said,well, I don't think we have to
(15:20):
worry about ChatGPT replacingemployees. But we might have to
worry about an employee usingChatGPT, replacing employees who
aren't using it. And so I thinkthere will continue to be this
balance of in order to be moresuccessful, as an individual, as
(15:41):
a business owner, within theUnited States, a very tech
driven country, we're going toneed to find ways to use
technology, the mostefficiently, the best that we
can in order to continue to growand develop our markets, and our
abilities in many areas. Becauseif we are embracing them, we'll
(16:04):
kind of get left behind thecurve. But along the way, we
really have to be diligent andpaying attention to the
cybersecurity issues thatsurround new technologies.
Phillip Stokes (16:16):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we have to
invest in these technologies tokeep up but also we have to be
aware of best practices aroundcybersecurity. And you you along
with others have have made alist of some of those best
practices. So I think we canjust kind of go through some of
them now. And for everyonelistening, we can we can give
(16:39):
you some of these tips that youcan follow in your business or
just in your your home life. Sofirst off, Lauri, you've said to
have a cybersecurity plan.
Lauri Baker (16:48):
Yes, absolutely.
And I think it may seem kind ofcheesy to some people,
particularly if you're anindividual thinking am I really
going to develop a cybersecurityplan for my family. But you
probably should be consideringthat. And if you're a small
business owner, in particular,you absolutely have to have a
cybersecurity plan. You wouldn'tlaunch a new product without
(17:12):
having a plan for it. Youwouldn't make any other business
decision without planning for itand managing it. So there are
some tools to help you do that.
The FCC, the FederalCommunications Commission
actually has tools and resourcesfor small businesses in
(17:32):
particular to help them developa cybersecurity plan. But kind
of within some of our bestpractices, you could walk
through some of these and startthese practices, even if you
haven't developed a full on planto make sure you're aware and
paying attention to each piecethat could affect you adversely.
Phillip Stokes (17:55):
Yeah, it's all about preparing much much like
preparing for, I don't know, anatural disaster. You always
want to prepare during thosetimes of blue skies when things
are going just fine. Next,Lauri, you have educate yourself
and your employees aboutcybersecurity.
Lauri Baker (18:12):
Yes, setting up team meetings where you have
this as a discussion item, aregular item that you're having
conversations about, so much ofit is just being aware of what's
out there. So paying attention.
Is there a new scam that's outthere? Is there a new way
they're attacking email? Anotherpiece that certainly related to
(18:33):
those conversations is youremployees personal technology
probably also needs to beupdated. As new software comes
available to them, they need tobe doing those upgrades and
having those conversations thatthey likely have access to your
email on their phones, they'retaking photos, maybe they're
(18:55):
uploading things to social mediafor you. So it really has to be
a team effort. It can't just beone person involved in
cybersecurity.
Phillip Stokes (19:07):
Well, and what you just said there about, you
know, keeping things up to datekind of leads into the next
point of getting anti malwaresoftware and keeping it updated.
Lauri Baker (19:17):
Yes, yes. And those two have to go hand in hand. And
honestly, I am the worst aboutnot wanting to do updates. I
keep thinking oh, well, afterthis next thing, all update
because I don't want to shutdown or I don't want to do this.
But again, having those regularcheck ins and having that plan
in place so that you're doingthose things is really
important. There are a lot ofmalware options or protection
(19:41):
options out there. And wecertainly don't advocate for any
particular brand. Decide whatworks for you. It certainly
depends on the size of yourbusiness and how many devices
you have and what type of datayou have. But the most important
thing is having something inplace that is regularly looking
for what threats are on thehorizon and protecting your
(20:03):
devices. And key doing thoseupdates to that protection along
the way.
Phillip Stokes (20:09):
Next, Lauri, you have store and backup your data
using Cloud Storage. And Iassume Cloud Storage is kind of
a key part of that.
Lauri Baker (20:17):
Yes, absolutely.
That's a huge component of it.
And I think more and more thecloud has become common language
that people understand what thatis. But they may not understand
why that's so important versusstoring something directly on
your computer. There issomething inherent to if it's on
(20:38):
my computer, I own it. But ifsomething happens to your
computer, it could be a physicaldamage to your computer. But
certainly, if you fall victim toa phishing or malware situation,
it could destroy all of yourdata, it could ruin your
machine, it could do a lot ofdifferent things. And one of the
(21:00):
things that you really wouldwant to make sure you've
protected are any files thatwouldn't be anywhere else, any
things that you share with otherpeople to make sure that you're
storing those not on a physicaldevice but in the cloud. Again,
we don't like to make particularrecommendations for which one,
there are tons of options outthere and available to you with
(21:21):
different price points, anddifferent sharing capabilities,
whether you're a family orwhether you're a small business,
but some of the ones you mightthink about looking at, you
know, Dropbox has options withinthat area, and lots of sharing
opportunities. Microsoft alsohas some products that that fall
into those categories that youmay be able to add on to an
(21:46):
email, Outlook kind ofsubscription. Google also has
some options. So there areplenty of choices out there. But
again, making sure that you havesomething that will store your
data and important filessomewhere other than your
physical device.
Phillip Stokes (22:02):
Lauri, the next one is something that every I'm
sure everyone listening probablystruggles with. It's our
passwords, passwords matter. AndI probably have about what 50
You know, so like, what advicecan you give on passwords?
Lauri Baker (22:18):
Yeah and passwords.
You're right, we all get angryabout having to change them. I
suspect many people are reusingthe same password over and over
again, that maybe they createdthe very first time they had an
email account. And I know we'reall guilty of having some
options that we do that with.
But it's really important thatyou not do that repeating
(22:42):
passwords can be one of theworst ways to fall victim to a
type of scheme. Because if if ahacker is able to get your
password in one place, and thenyou reuse that password that is
on maybe your personal email,and you've used it on your bank
account, and you've used it onyour business login. Well now
(23:03):
they have access to everything.
So it's important to havedifferent passwords. It's also
important to have passwords thatare not your birth date, or your
phone number or easily guessableitems. So having some of those
stronger passwords that havemultiple characters that may be
sentence structures, numbers.
(23:27):
Many systems have differentrequirements for passwords. And
that is something that'sbecoming more standardized to
require higher level passwords.
But the repeating of passwordscan certainly be a big challenge
within that. The other piece isthere have been more and more
opportunities for smallbusinesses and members of the
(23:48):
public to have additionalauthentication. And so when that
type of services available, youshould take advantage of it. And
that's simply something thatmaybe you enter your password,
but they also require to sendyou a text and have a code that
you enter so that you verifythat it's you and there there
(24:10):
are different formats of thatand technology is continuing to
emerge in those areas. Butanytime there's an offer for
something even better than apassword as a backup, you should
try to take advantage of that.
Phillip Stokes (24:25):
Okay, Lauri, the last one, the last tip you have
is protect your data.
Lauri Baker (24:31):
Yes, absolutely.
One of the things that,particularly in a small business
we do is maybe we sign up and weonly have one design account,
and then we share that password.
Again, not supposed to besharing that password but we
share that password witheveryone within the whole system
or we store it in a place whereeveryone can get it. Well you
(24:52):
certainly trust all of thepeople that are around you. But
if people don't really needaccess to perhaps customers,
phone numbers and addresses,it's not something that's a part
of their job. It's somebody,maybe in your family that's
helping you take photos on thefarm. Well, if they aren't
emailing those photos or sendingthem directly to customers, then
(25:15):
they probably don't need directaccess to customer information.
And I know there is a tendencyto want to be transparent and
share with everyone. And thoseare good goals and things that
help a business function, butalso understanding what people
really need to know and whatpeople don't need to know. So
(25:37):
protecting your data internally,and making sure only the people
that really need data haveaccess to that data, and that it
does have all of the passwordsprotected and all of the other
best practices that we've talkedabout around it. But that
includes managing your kind ofinternal audience as well, the
(25:58):
same way that I don't give my 11year old my credit card number.
I instead, if he needs topurchase something, I go over to
his iPad and use my fingerauthentication to purchase
something instead of directlygiving him that information.
Phillip Stokes (26:17):
Yeah, that's wonderful. And that, that those
are, you know, all the tips thatwe have. And I should say this,
I do want to say this, theeverything that we've talked
about, we have a publication onthat, we'll include that in the
show notes. So if you'relistening, and you want to go
back and refer to these and getsome more details on that, we'll
list that in the show notes.
Check it out there. We'll alsohave some other resources. You
(26:38):
know, as we're kind of wrappingup here, Lauri, I guess I
couldn't help but thinking like,if our like grandparents, or
great grandparents heard ustalking right now, they would
think we were like, in a in afuturistic sci fi movie or
something, you know, like, Iguess I'm just thinking, like,
the future is here, and we areliving in it. And all of those
things that that may have seemedlike a dream before. I mean,
(27:03):
they're they're upon us. And soyeah, it's in some ways, it's
kind of scary. In some waysit's, it's really great because
it, it does help us have ahigher quality of life, and be
able to do more and be moreconnected with our friends and
our family. But that comes withsome things that we need to
account for.
Lauri Baker (27:24):
Right. Absolutely.
And yeah, we can't say that wewould turn it all off. I don't
think there are just too manybenefits and too many
opportunities, particularly inagriculture, where we're trying
to feed the world, right? Wecan't do that without some of
these advanced technologies. Soit is important to just stay
vigilant. Pay attention. Don'tbe overly scared, but always be
(27:45):
prepared.
Phillip Stokes (27:48):
Sure, sure.
Well, wonderful. Well, onceagain, such an important topic
and Dr. Lauri Baker, I want tothank you for being on Science
by the Slice. And I'm sure we'llhave you back here real soon.
Lauri Baker (27:59):
Okay, thanks enjoyed it.
Ricky Telg (28:03):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
Subscribe to Science by theSlice on your favorite podcast
app and give us a rating orreview as well. Have a question
or comment? Send us an email topiecenter@ifas.ufl.edu. That's
(28:26):
piecenter, all one word, atifas, I-F-A-S, dot ufl dot edu.
We'd love to hear from you. Ifyou enjoyed today's episode,
consider sharing with a friendor colleague. Until next time,
thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (00:33):
Welcome to Science by the Slice I'm Phillip
Stokes, Education Coordinatorwith the PIE Center. It seems
that the world has entered a newphase of digital dependence,
software and systems are growingmore complex, we are becoming
more connected to each otherthrough virtual spaces. And all
of this can provide value tocompanies and consumers alike.
(00:58):
In fact, what we're doing rightnow is an example of this in
action. In essence, I'm talkingto you through a digitally
recorded audio file that wasuploaded to a podcast hosting
service. So people can then findit in a directory and listen to
it on a podcast app, which mighthave been automatically
(01:18):
downloaded to your device oncethe episode was published
because you subscribe. By theway, please do subscribe. So all
of that can happen because ofhow connected we are through the
Internet. The Internet and theprograms that rely on it are
powerful, and with great powercomes great responsibility. And
(01:39):
that responsibility falls on allof us. As we engage in powerful
internet-based activities, it'sour responsibility to be
vigilant of potentialcyberattacks. So today's episode
is all about the things you cando to protect your business or
personal internet-connectedsystems from cyberattacks now,
(02:01):
like today, measures you cantake right away. And to share
this with you, I'm joined by Dr.
Lauri Baker, Associate Professorof Agricultural Communication at
the University of Florida, andaffiliate faculty member of the
UF/IFAS PIE Center. Dr. Bakeralso co created the Center for
Rural Enterprise Engagement orCREE a faculty driven
(02:24):
interdisciplinary researchcenter that serves as a
generator and source ofknowledge about new media
marketing in an effort to enablerural and agriculture based
businesses to flourish in everchanging environments. Dr. Baker
and I discuss the importance ofhaving a robust cybersecurity
plan, educating yourself andyour employees and investing in
(02:47):
the right tools to protect yourelectronic data at home and at
work.
Well, Dr. Lauri Baker, thank youso much for being on the PIE
Center's podcast Science by theSlice, of course, you know about
the podcast pretty well as youare a an affiliated faculty
(03:09):
member of the PIE Center. So I'mjust want to give you a chance
to introduce yourself and tellus a little bit more about who
you are and your differentresearch interests.
Lauri Baker (03:18):
Yeah, great. Happy to be here. Thanks for having
me. As you said, I am anaffiliate faculty member with
the PIE Center and my homedepartment is in Agricultural
Education and Communication. Andwhen I came back to Florida as a
faculty member in 2019, Ibrought with me a partner center
to the PIE Center, the Centerfor Rural Enterprise Engagement.
(03:39):
And so we work across multipleinstitutions at Kansas State
University here at theUniversity of Florida, as well
as the University of Minnesota.
And our goal really, is to helpsmall businesses, particularly
ag based businesses, usetechnology more efficiently to
connect with consumers to sellproducts to consumers, and to
(04:00):
engage in a positive way. Sothat really is the basis of a
lot of my research and extensionwork.
Phillip Stokes (04:10):
That's great.
And, you know, I'm thinkingabout the different technologies
and the different applicationsthat are available to
agribusinesses. And just smallbusinesses in general that
weren't around 10, 20, 30 yearsago. I mean, it's pretty
immense, how different it is,right? And so what are some of
those technologies and thosethings that business owners have
(04:31):
access to now?
Lauri Baker (04:34):
Absolutely. The landscape is really, really
changed in the last 10, in thelast 20 years, as you noted,
certainly, and one thing thathas really pushed a lot of
change related to technology wasthe pandemic. So there were
certainly a lot of negativesthat came out of it. And I know
you focused on that some in thispodcast previously. And we've
(04:55):
certainly done a lot of researcharound that. But there also were
some real positives, that camefrom that related to online
selling, in particular, havingthe opportunity to sell directly
to consumers. And many of themdid that for the very first
time. Some of them had been setup before. And actually, when we
started the center in 2015,online selling was something we
(05:18):
talked about a lot, as well associal media marketing and
conducted research in that area.
But many stakeholders weren'treally interested at that time.
But I guess we planted theseeds. And when the pandemic
happened, we got a lot of phonecalls saying, you remember when
you were trying to get me to setup an online shop, and I wasn't
that interested? Okay, so nowI'd really like to know how to
(05:40):
do that, and how to make thatwork. And some of our research
in other areas where we lookedat producers who were able to
survive the pandemic, for themost part, those were people
that were able to pivot fairlyquickly into some other sales
opportunity. And for many ofthem, that was a direct to
(06:00):
consumer marketing opportunity.
And so they, in some cases,actually saw greater sales than
they'd had pre pandemic, andwere able to connect more with
consumers, all through this newtechnology, or new versions of
the technology and newopportunities that came from a
(06:20):
situation that wasn'tnecessarily that positive.
Phillip Stokes (06:24):
Yeah, I'm thinking about, there are always
going to be some people who arekind of on the forefront of
accepting some of these newtechnologies, adopting some of
them. Most people unless you arereally forced to, you might, you
might wait until there's acircumstance that you really
have to respond to, and that wasthe pandemic, right? As you
said.
Lauri Baker (06:44):
Absolutely. And, and truthfully, pre pandemic, it
may not have been the bestbusiness decision for many
producers. But because peoplewere staying home and they
weren't headed to hotels andrestaurants, many of our
producers needed to come up withan alternative. And so there
were a lot of factors that kindof happened. At the same time,
(07:05):
consumers were also more willingto purchase things online, to
purchase directly from consumersand had more time to investigate
those things and explore whatopportunities were available.
Phillip Stokes (07:17):
So as business owners, and just individuals are
adopting some of these newtechnologies, and putting them
into practice into with theirbusiness, things move at a quick
pace. And so sometimes we're notalways prepared for some of the
consequences, some of the thingsthat come along with that,
potentially some of thosenegative things, as we talked
(07:37):
about. So today, we're talkingabout cybersecurity, of course,
and so. So why should businessowners, and just everyday people
who, you know, are connectedonline, why should we all be
concerned about cybersecurity?
Lauri Baker (07:54):
Absolutely, there are certainly some inherent
risks to any technology really,but particularly technology,
where you may be collecting orsharing personal data. In places
where you're purchasing aproduct online, or you're
selling a product online,there's an exchange of
information that happens in thatprocess. Sometimes you may not
(08:17):
be selling something directly orpurchasing something directly,
but you're still adding in yourbirthday when you create a
social media account, or you'readding in some details about
yourself or your children orthere are security questions on
your banking app that might leadto somebody finding more
information out about you. Andunfortunately, some people may
(08:41):
not have positive intentionswith using that information. So
we do have to be careful duringthese times. And I think the
more technology becomes justubiquitous in our lives, and
it's everywhere, we may start toget a little complacent. And
with that can come some risks.
And sometimes, small businessowners or individuals may think,
(09:04):
Well, I'm not really at risk,surely, they're going to attack
a large company where they canget a lot more money. I don't
really even have that much moneyin my business account or my
personal account. So I probablyam safe. Well, there certainly
are people that are going to gofor the biggest bang and try for
the larger companies. But thetruth is the larger companies
(09:27):
likely have full time ITprofessionals that are working
on their cybersecurity issues,they're much harder to get into.
And so hacker might make adecision to choose to attack a
lot of small businesses orindividuals as opposed to a
large one because unfortunately,many people are not protecting
(09:50):
themselves.
Phillip Stokes (09:53):
Yeah for sure.
And we were talking about thisyesterday, right. You know, us
working at UF you know, we havea whole IT team that might be
looking into some of thesethings. If you are kind of out
there by yourself, you don'thave those those teammates, and
those staff members maybelooking doing some of that work
for you. So what should peoplebe on the lookout for? What are
(10:13):
the types of cybersecuritythreats?
Lauri Baker (10:17):
Yeah, absolutely, we can kind of break down the
two cybersecurity threats intotwo categories, really phishing
or malware. And so phishingactually has been almost
mainstream, there have beenmovies kind of focused on those
kinds of issues. So people maybe more aware of those. But
phishing scams are essentiallywhere someone sends you an
(10:40):
email, a text, some form ofcommunication, It can even be a
telephone call, and tries to getyour information from you. And
through that, then they can useit in all sorts of different
ways depending on what kind ofinformation they have. So
phishing scams like that havegotten more advanced. So it used
(11:03):
to be we all kind of heard,well, somebody from Nigeria
sends you an email that you sendthem a million dollars, and
they'll send you back 2 million.
Well, they've gotten a lot moreadvanced since then. And so
things might come to your emailfor yourself or your employees.
And it may look prettylegitimate, it may have the name
of a company that you do use,but perhaps the extension is a
(11:27):
little bit different. And so ingeneral, through those phishing
scams, they might be able to getyour business information, they
might be able to get throughfirewalls and get your customers
information, depending on howadvanced it is. The other
category that we think about ismalware, and malware can be
(11:47):
attached to phishing scams, orit can come in a different way
more directly. But essentially,that's when a hacker can get
into your system, and launchsome form of malware. And the
viruses can do different typesof things the same as biological
viruses, right, they all havekind of a different intent. Some
(12:10):
of them are simply just designedto mess with you and your
organization and shut thingsdown just for fun on the event
of a hacker, but some of themcan be more destructive, and can
be designed to get into bankaccount information, and then
sell that online or use thatthemselves in another way, or
(12:31):
collect sensitive data andinformation, not only from you,
but from your customers from allof your contacts on an
individual level.
Phillip Stokes (12:42):
Lauri, phishing and malware have been around for
a long time, you know, about aslong as the internet has has
been around. And, you know, Ithink things are the landscapes
changing a little bit where it'swell known some of the some of
the hazards and some of therisks of being connected online
(13:02):
and some of the attacks thatpeople can receive. But of
course, you know, businesses, alot of times rely on this
interconnected web to do just todo all the work that they they
can, what is like the pulse kindof the the American pulse are
the pulse on cybersecuritythreats and some of the new
(13:22):
technologies that are now on thehorizon and here such as AI and
machine learning and such.
Lauri Baker (13:28):
Yeah, that's an excellent point. I think the
longer something has been out,right, the more comfortable we
get with it. And the more westart to think that, oh, well,
maybe there aren't very manyconcerns anymore. I know what
I'm looking for. I'm not goingto click on any weird emails.
And as you say, on an individualbasis, maybe some people
(13:50):
nationally, there's a bigdiscussion of kind of unplugging
and some people taking aconscious choice to move away
from social media, to maybe notallow their children to have
access to those things. Butyou're right, businesses may not
be able to do that it doesn'tnecessarily make sense for them,
(14:11):
particularly when consumers areasking for more opportunities,
more point of sale options,quicker sales, easier sales,
which all come with newtechnology and new software. And
a national survey with a globalmarket research firm recently
looked at people's fears relatedto artificial intelligence. And
(14:35):
while the overall concern wassimilar for artificial
intelligence, as wascybersecurity and malware and
data breaches, the level ofconcern was much higher for some
of those artificial intelligencepieces. And I think in looking
at that and seeking to kind ofunderstand that I think some of
it may be that fear of theunknown and similar the way we
(14:59):
talked about online sellingbeing a positive of the
internet, there certainly aresome other positives related to
artificial intelligence. OurCREE group actually has a blog
post on five different AI toolsthat you can use to help your
business be more efficient. Iwas actually in a meeting
yesterday and somebody said,well, I don't think we have to
(15:20):
worry about ChatGPT replacingemployees. But we might have to
worry about an employee usingChatGPT, replacing employees who
aren't using it. And so I thinkthere will continue to be this
balance of in order to be moresuccessful, as an individual, as
(15:41):
a business owner, within theUnited States, a very tech
driven country, we're going toneed to find ways to use
technology, the mostefficiently, the best that we
can in order to continue to growand develop our markets, and our
abilities in many areas. Becauseif we are embracing them, we'll
(16:04):
kind of get left behind thecurve. But along the way, we
really have to be diligent andpaying attention to the
cybersecurity issues thatsurround new technologies.
Phillip Stokes (16:16):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we have to
invest in these technologies tokeep up but also we have to be
aware of best practices aroundcybersecurity. And you you along
with others have have made alist of some of those best
practices. So I think we canjust kind of go through some of
them now. And for everyonelistening, we can we can give
(16:39):
you some of these tips that youcan follow in your business or
just in your your home life. Sofirst off, Lauri, you've said to
have a cybersecurity plan.
Lauri Baker (16:48):
Yes, absolutely.
And I think it may seem kind ofcheesy to some people,
particularly if you're anindividual thinking am I really
going to develop a cybersecurityplan for my family. But you
probably should be consideringthat. And if you're a small
business owner, in particular,you absolutely have to have a
cybersecurity plan. You wouldn'tlaunch a new product without
(17:12):
having a plan for it. Youwouldn't make any other business
decision without planning for itand managing it. So there are
some tools to help you do that.
The FCC, the FederalCommunications Commission
actually has tools and resourcesfor small businesses in
(17:32):
particular to help them developa cybersecurity plan. But kind
of within some of our bestpractices, you could walk
through some of these and startthese practices, even if you
haven't developed a full on planto make sure you're aware and
paying attention to each piecethat could affect you adversely.
Phillip Stokes (17:55):
Yeah, it's all about preparing much much like
preparing for, I don't know, anatural disaster. You always
want to prepare during thosetimes of blue skies when things
are going just fine. Next,Lauri, you have educate yourself
and your employees aboutcybersecurity.
Lauri Baker (18:12):
Yes, setting up team meetings where you have
this as a discussion item, aregular item that you're having
conversations about, so much ofit is just being aware of what's
out there. So paying attention.
Is there a new scam that's outthere? Is there a new way
they're attacking email? Anotherpiece that certainly related to
(18:33):
those conversations is youremployees personal technology
probably also needs to beupdated. As new software comes
available to them, they need tobe doing those upgrades and
having those conversations thatthey likely have access to your
email on their phones, they'retaking photos, maybe they're
(18:55):
uploading things to social mediafor you. So it really has to be
a team effort. It can't just beone person involved in
cybersecurity.
Phillip Stokes (19:07):
Well, and what you just said there about, you
know, keeping things up to datekind of leads into the next
point of getting anti malwaresoftware and keeping it updated.
Lauri Baker (19:17):
Yes, yes. And those two have to go hand in hand. And
honestly, I am the worst aboutnot wanting to do updates. I
keep thinking oh, well, afterthis next thing, all update
because I don't want to shutdown or I don't want to do this.
But again, having those regularcheck ins and having that plan
in place so that you're doingthose things is really
important. There are a lot ofmalware options or protection
(19:41):
options out there. And wecertainly don't advocate for any
particular brand. Decide whatworks for you. It certainly
depends on the size of yourbusiness and how many devices
you have and what type of datayou have. But the most important
thing is having something inplace that is regularly looking
for what threats are on thehorizon and protecting your
(20:03):
devices. And key doing thoseupdates to that protection along
the way.
Phillip Stokes (20:09):
Next, Lauri, you have store and backup your data
using Cloud Storage. And Iassume Cloud Storage is kind of
a key part of that.
Lauri Baker (20:17):
Yes, absolutely.
That's a huge component of it.
And I think more and more thecloud has become common language
that people understand what thatis. But they may not understand
why that's so important versusstoring something directly on
your computer. There issomething inherent to if it's on
(20:38):
my computer, I own it. But ifsomething happens to your
computer, it could be a physicaldamage to your computer. But
certainly, if you fall victim toa phishing or malware situation,
it could destroy all of yourdata, it could ruin your
machine, it could do a lot ofdifferent things. And one of the
(21:00):
things that you really wouldwant to make sure you've
protected are any files thatwouldn't be anywhere else, any
things that you share with otherpeople to make sure that you're
storing those not on a physicaldevice but in the cloud. Again,
we don't like to make particularrecommendations for which one,
there are tons of options outthere and available to you with
(21:21):
different price points, anddifferent sharing capabilities,
whether you're a family orwhether you're a small business,
but some of the ones you mightthink about looking at, you
know, Dropbox has options withinthat area, and lots of sharing
opportunities. Microsoft alsohas some products that that fall
into those categories that youmay be able to add on to an
(21:46):
email, Outlook kind ofsubscription. Google also has
some options. So there areplenty of choices out there. But
again, making sure that you havesomething that will store your
data and important filessomewhere other than your
physical device.
Phillip Stokes (22:02):
Lauri, the next one is something that every I'm
sure everyone listening probablystruggles with. It's our
passwords, passwords matter. AndI probably have about what 50
You know, so like, what advicecan you give on passwords?
Lauri Baker (22:18):
Yeah and passwords.
You're right, we all get angryabout having to change them. I
suspect many people are reusingthe same password over and over
again, that maybe they createdthe very first time they had an
email account. And I know we'reall guilty of having some
options that we do that with.
But it's really important thatyou not do that repeating
(22:42):
passwords can be one of theworst ways to fall victim to a
type of scheme. Because if if ahacker is able to get your
password in one place, and thenyou reuse that password that is
on maybe your personal email,and you've used it on your bank
account, and you've used it onyour business login. Well now
(23:03):
they have access to everything.
So it's important to havedifferent passwords. It's also
important to have passwords thatare not your birth date, or your
phone number or easily guessableitems. So having some of those
stronger passwords that havemultiple characters that may be
sentence structures, numbers.
(23:27):
Many systems have differentrequirements for passwords. And
that is something that'sbecoming more standardized to
require higher level passwords.
But the repeating of passwordscan certainly be a big challenge
within that. The other piece isthere have been more and more
opportunities for smallbusinesses and members of the
(23:48):
public to have additionalauthentication. And so when that
type of services available, youshould take advantage of it. And
that's simply something thatmaybe you enter your password,
but they also require to sendyou a text and have a code that
you enter so that you verifythat it's you and there there
(24:10):
are different formats of thatand technology is continuing to
emerge in those areas. Butanytime there's an offer for
something even better than apassword as a backup, you should
try to take advantage of that.
Phillip Stokes (24:25):
Okay, Lauri, the last one, the last tip you have
is protect your data.
Lauri Baker (24:31):
Yes, absolutely.
One of the things that,particularly in a small business
we do is maybe we sign up and weonly have one design account,
and then we share that password.
Again, not supposed to besharing that password but we
share that password witheveryone within the whole system
or we store it in a place whereeveryone can get it. Well you
(24:52):
certainly trust all of thepeople that are around you. But
if people don't really needaccess to perhaps customers,
phone numbers and addresses,it's not something that's a part
of their job. It's somebody,maybe in your family that's
helping you take photos on thefarm. Well, if they aren't
emailing those photos or sendingthem directly to customers, then
(25:15):
they probably don't need directaccess to customer information.
And I know there is a tendencyto want to be transparent and
share with everyone. And thoseare good goals and things that
help a business function, butalso understanding what people
really need to know and whatpeople don't need to know. So
(25:37):
protecting your data internally,and making sure only the people
that really need data haveaccess to that data, and that it
does have all of the passwordsprotected and all of the other
best practices that we've talkedabout around it. But that
includes managing your kind ofinternal audience as well, the
(25:58):
same way that I don't give my 11year old my credit card number.
I instead, if he needs topurchase something, I go over to
his iPad and use my fingerauthentication to purchase
something instead of directlygiving him that information.
Phillip Stokes (26:17):
Yeah, that's wonderful. And that, that those
are, you know, all the tips thatwe have. And I should say this,
I do want to say this, theeverything that we've talked
about, we have a publication onthat, we'll include that in the
show notes. So if you'relistening, and you want to go
back and refer to these and getsome more details on that, we'll
list that in the show notes.
Check it out there. We'll alsohave some other resources. You
(26:38):
know, as we're kind of wrappingup here, Lauri, I guess I
couldn't help but thinking like,if our like grandparents, or
great grandparents heard ustalking right now, they would
think we were like, in a in afuturistic sci fi movie or
something, you know, like, Iguess I'm just thinking, like,
the future is here, and we areliving in it. And all of those
things that that may have seemedlike a dream before. I mean,
(27:03):
they're they're upon us. And soyeah, it's in some ways, it's
kind of scary. In some waysit's, it's really great because
it, it does help us have ahigher quality of life, and be
able to do more and be moreconnected with our friends and
our family. But that comes withsome things that we need to
account for.
Lauri Baker (27:24):
Right. Absolutely.
And yeah, we can't say that wewould turn it all off. I don't
think there are just too manybenefits and too many
opportunities, particularly inagriculture, where we're trying
to feed the world, right? Wecan't do that without some of
these advanced technologies. Soit is important to just stay
vigilant. Pay attention. Don'tbe overly scared, but always be
(27:45):
prepared.
Phillip Stokes (27:48):
Sure, sure.
Well, wonderful. Well, onceagain, such an important topic
and Dr. Lauri Baker, I want tothank you for being on Science
by the Slice. And I'm sure we'llhave you back here real soon.
Lauri Baker (27:59):
Okay, thanks enjoyed it.
Ricky Telg (28:03):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
Subscribe to Science by theSlice on your favorite podcast
app and give us a rating orreview as well. Have a question
or comment? Send us an email topiecenter@ifas.ufl.edu. That's
(28:26):
piecenter, all one word, atifas, I-F-A-S, dot ufl dot edu.
We'd love to hear from you. Ifyou enjoyed today's episode,
consider sharing with a friendor colleague. Until next time,
thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
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