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Farmers a target for hackers
Farmers could become the next big target for cyber criminals following bumper payments from the Scottish Government .
F ollowing approval at Holyrood , payments worth £ 254million were made in late October to farmers and crofters - up to 90 % of their Common Agricultural Policy basic payment support loan .
Yet by conducting simple research , it is possible for anyone to find out how much an individual farmer has received in previous CAP payments and how much they will likely receive this year .
Experts from the Scottish Business Resilience Centre ( SBRC ) believe this widely publicised payment makes farmers a prime target for cyber criminals .
Gerry Grant , Chief Ethical Hacker with the SBRC , said : “ I know how vital these payments are to the livelihood of farmers and crofters .
“ This makes it even more important that they ’ re fully aware that it can make them an easy target for criminals to try and scam them .
“ Criminals can easily work out an accurate estimation of what a farmer is likely to receive in CAP payments and armed with this information , they can try and steal the money .
“ They can send various emails to try and get passwords for bank accounts or even try and trick unsuspecting farmers into making payments to the wrong account .” This type of cybercrime is known as CEO or Mandate fraud and could potentially put famers ’ livelihoods at risk .
Experts are urging farmers to be conscious that they will likely be targeted over the coming weeks and should be extra vigilant about any suspicious emails or phone calls .
The types of calls will usually involve someone asking them to take urgent action in relation to payments or their bank accounts .
Anyone who receives a suspect call is urged to verify the email address or phone number with the person who initiated contact .
They can do this by hanging up and searching the internet for the relevant phone number or address .
Things farmers should be on the lookout for :
Worker shortages could cause supply chain disruption next year
The NFU ’ s labour provider ’ s survey1 reveals that there was a 29 % shortfall in seasonal workers for horticulture businesses in September , raising the average shortfall for the year to 11 %.
T he survey also shows that the number of returning workers to farms , a critical source of the workforce , fell to 16 %, its lowest level all year . The returnee rate had been as high as 65 % in January .
Farmers are feeling the impact on farm as the cost of food production is rising through higher wages , reduced picking rates and , in some cases , non-harvesting of crops .
NFU Deputy President Minette Batters said : “ The British horticulture industry is critically important to British agriculture , providing vital jobs and value to the economy .
“ As an industry , we have the opportunity to enhance our homegrown food production and increasing the amount of fruit and veg we grow should be a central part of that .
“ The situation for farms has become a lot more challenging and farmers are already experiencing the serious effects a
Emails from suppliers asking for funds to be transferred to a different bank account
Emails claiming that there is a problem with an account
Phone calls from banks saying that there appears to be unusual activity on their account .
lack of workers can have on a business , with some being forced to not harvest crops .
“ If the industry continues to see serious shortfalls in the availability of workers , the knock-on effects for the supply chain and the public could be serious .
“ Access to a competent and reliable workforce is vital for our food production , especially in a time of record low levels of UK unemployment .
“ There remains a window of time between now and May 2018 for the Government to take action to prevent a shortfall and the ensuing impacts .
“ The simplest measure would be a tried and tested seasonal agricultural workers scheme open to non-EU workers to top-up the access we have now to EU nationals .
“ Post-Brexit , we need to see an immigration policy that is based on fact and business need and recognises the importance and seasonality of workers across all skill levels .”
08 | Farming Monthly | November 2017 www . farmingmonthly . co . uk