Trusting nature puts many at risk from scourge of cybercrime

With the sector holding on to decent, old-fashioned values, the trusting nature of many of those involved in the industry along with the family-orientated nature of many businesses, farming can be at risk from unscrupulous criminals involved in the growing area of cybercrime.

And this week producers in the Borders area heard that these facts, together with a tendency to relatively large value transactions and a lack of many of the corporate security measures adopted by larger businesses, could mean that losses to farmers ensnared by such crim- inals could be substantial.

Speaking after the meetings, Royal Bank of Scotland director of commercial banking in south-east Scotland, Criona Courtney said that while the farming had not been targeted more than other industries the risks were very real.

Highlighting some of the common scams she said that while most people were aware not to click on links which would then download malware, farmers should beware of e-mails from suppliers stating that their banking details had been changed:

“Whilethee-mailaddress of the sender might look genuine, this is often because the scammers have cloned the identity of the supplier. It used to be that if you hovered the mouse over the address the real source would be revealed but criminals have now become more sophisticated.

“The only real way to be sure about such notifications is to call the supplier on their usual number and ask them if they have, indeed, changed their bank details.”

Even when those sending e-mails, texts or making telephone calls seemed to know a surprising amount about a business or individual, these details were often harvested through social engineering based on open access to social media accounts such as Facebook.