Farmers are not immune from fraud and cyber-attack criminals warn UFU

THE Ulster Farmers Union have highlighted a new ‘Cybersecurity Course for Farm Families’ and have warned that farmers are not immune from fraud and cyber-attacks.

A new Farm Family Key Skills cybersecurity course to help farm families work safer online is now available.

Increasing use of the internet leads to increased opportunities and effort by criminals to access and steal your assets.

Cyber criminals are looking for weak points in your systems or internet usage to steal your money and information. In 2020, over four in ten small UK businesses surveyed identified an attempt to breach their cyber-security.

The internet brings huge benefits in terms of communication, education, business, banking, entertainment, buying and selling and the associated convenience of being able to do these from home or from a portable device. Smart devices such as camera and video systems used to check on livestock at calving and lambing times or for farm security, robotic and GPS related systems also use the internet. But they also bring additional risks.

Some scams or attempted hacks may be easy to spot, but with the increased use of the internet over the past few years, cyber criminals are using more sophisticated techniques. So don’t wait until something happens before you either make sure you are working safe online or find you needed to take steps to make your online transactions safer.

The new Farm Family Key Skills cybersecurity course for farm families has been developed with the support of the Northern Ireland Cybersecurity Centre.

The course gives you practical information and guidance on: The benefits and risks of working online and using online services; How to keep your devices safe and secure; Protecting your operating systems and application software; How to keep you and your information safe and secure when communicating, carrying out transactions and accessing information online.

The course is delivered by accredited trainers experienced in ICT and on-line security. It lasts around 1½-2 hours and is available online so you can take part from the comfort of your home.

Taking part in a ‘Working Safe Online’ course will be a couple of hours well spent.

It will help protect your money and information. This project that has been developed under the auspices of CAFRE and is part of the ongoing ‘Farm Families Key Skills Programme’ and part funded by the EU.