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. 2019 Mar 29:7:63.
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2019.00063. eCollection 2019.

Cyberbiosecurity: A New Perspective on Protecting U.S. Food and Agricultural System

Susan E Duncan  1   2 , Robert Reinhard  2   3 , Robert C Williams  2 , Ford Ramsey  4 , Wade Thomason  5 , Kiho Lee  6 , Nancy Dudek  1 , Saied Mostaghimi  1   7 , Edward Colbert  8 , Randall Murch  4   9
Affiliations

Cyberbiosecurity: A New Perspective on Protecting U.S. Food and Agricultural System

Susan E Duncan et al. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. .

Abstract

Our national data and infrastructure security issues affecting the "bioeconomy" are evolving rapidly. Simultaneously, the conversation about cyber security of the U.S. food and agricultural system (cyber biosecurity) is incomplete and disjointed. The food and agricultural production sectors influence over 20% of the nation's economy ($6.7T) and 15% of U.S. employment (43.3M jobs). The food and agricultural sectors are immensely diverse and they require advanced technologies and efficiencies that rely on computer technologies, big data, cloud-based data storage, and internet accessibility. There is a critical need to safeguard the cyber biosecurity of our bio economy, but currently protections are minimal and do not broadly exist across the food and agricultural system. Using the food safety management Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system concept as an introductory point of reference, we identify important features in broad food and agricultural production and food systems: dairy, food animals, row crops, fruits and vegetables, and environmental resources (water). This analysis explores the relevant concepts of cyber biosecurity from food production to the end product user (such as the consumer) and considers the integration of diverse transportation, supplier, and retailer networks. We describe common challenges and unique barriers across these systems and recommend solutions to advance the role of cyber biosecurity in the food and agricultural sectors.

Keywords: agriculture; animal; bio economy; biosecurity; cyber biosecurity; cyber security; food; plant.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Cyberbiosecurity is an emerging discipline for protecting life sciences data, functions and operations (or infrastructure), and the bio economy.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(Top) Fd+Ag system for each commodity sector is a sequence of stages, with limited communications and sharing of data between each; (bottom) if a cyber-biosecurity event occurs, it can have catastrophic effect on the entire Fd+Ag system.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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