The Cybersecurity Blind Spot Feeding America

By Scott Alldridge - IP Services – CEO
MBA Cybersecurity / CCISO / CISSP / Harvard Certified on Technology & Privacy

Most people never think about cybersecurity when they sit down for dinner. They think about the quality of the steak, whether the vegetables are fresh, or if the strawberries are finally in season. What they don't think about is the remarkable digital infrastructure that made that meal possible. Long before food reaches the grocery store, it has likely passed through dozens of automated systems, GPS-guided tractors, AI-assisted crop management, irrigation controllers, fertilizer systems, warehouse robotics, refrigerated transportation, processing plants, inventory systems, and increasingly, cloud-based supply chain platforms.

The food and agriculture industry has quietly become one of the most technologically advanced industries in the world. Yet, in many ways, it continues to think about cybersecurity as if it were still operating twenty years ago. That disconnect worries me.

Throughout my career, I've often said that organizations rarely suffer catastrophic breaches because of what they know. More often, they are breached because of what they don't know. The same principle applies to governance. Executives frequently focus on the risks they understand while overlooking the risks they've never identified. In my experience as a vCISO, that is where many of the largest exposures exist.

Agriculture is no exception. Today's farming operations bear little resemblance to those of previous generations. Precision agriculture allows equipment to plant within fractions of an inch. Moisture sensors automatically trigger irrigation. Livestock health is monitored continuously through connected devices. AI models help determine fertilizer application, pest control, harvesting schedules, and yield forecasting. Food processors rely on automated production lines that operate around the clock, while logistics companies coordinate thousands of refrigerated shipments through integrated software platforms.

This transformation has created tremendous efficiency. It has also dramatically expanded the attack surface. Unfortunately, cybersecurity has not evolved at the same pace.

One of the greatest misconceptions I encounter is the belief that cybercriminals are primarily interested in stealing information. While data theft remains a significant concern, operational disruption has become equally valuable to attackers. Food production depends on timing.

Crops cannot simply wait while systems are restored. Livestock must continue to be fed. Refrigeration systems cannot stop because ransomware encrypted a controller. Processing plants cannot afford days of downtime during harvest season. Every hour of disruption has cascading effects throughout the supply chain.

Unlike many industries, agriculture cannot simply press pause.

Perhaps more concerning is that the greatest vulnerabilities are often found outside the organizations themselves. Over the past decade, attackers have increasingly compromised trusted suppliers, software providers, equipment manufacturers, logistics companies, and service partners before ultimately reaching their intended targets. In many industries, the supply chain has become the new perimeter. Food and agriculture may be one of the clearest examples of this reality.

This is precisely why governance must come before technology. One of the recurring themes throughout the VisibleOps Cybersecurity series has been that technology alone rarely solves cybersecurity problems. Organizations purchase more security tools every year, yet breaches continue because technology answers technical questions while governance answers business questions.

Boards should not begin by asking whether they have the latest security product. They should begin by asking what systems are now absolutely essential to food production, which operational technologies could halt production if compromised, which vendors possess privileged access, where critical operational data resides, and what business risks would remain if every security product operated exactly as designed.

One of the foundational principles we introduced in the original VisibleOps work nearly two decades ago remains just as relevant today: 'You cannot effectively control what you cannot clearly see.' Visibility remains one of the greatest challenges facing organizations of every size.
Artificial Intelligence is now adding another layer of complexity. AI-driven irrigation, predictive maintenance, disease detection, autonomous equipment, crop optimization, and supply chain forecasting will transform agriculture, but they also demand governance. Organizations must ask not only how AI improves productivity, but how AI decisions are validated, how operational data is protected, and who ultimately remains accountable.

Too often, Zero Trust is described as technical architecture. I believe it is an operating philosophy. Every connection, every user, every device, every application, and every vendor should continuously earn trust through verification. As I've often said, 'Trust is not security control. Verification is.'

The organizations that will lead the next decade will not necessarily be those with the largest cybersecurity budgets. They will be the organizations that understand their operational risks, govern technology intentionally, continuously evaluate their supply chain, and build resilience into every layer of their business.

Most consumers will never think about the cybersecurity systems operating behind the food on their dinner table. That's perfectly understandable. The industry, however, no longer has that luxury. Protecting food production has become every bit as important as protecting information. Cybersecurity has become part of our food security infrastructure itself. And that makes this far more than an IT conversation. It is now an executive and boardroom conversation