Lillian Martin
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, Virginia 23529
9/26/24

Dear Professor Norris,
Two of the most important fields in modern day society are agriculture and cyber security. Agriculture has always been and will always be a major source of income for many citizens, and its importance cannot be understated. That being said, many people don’t have a full understanding of how important agriculture can be, and with the advent of Artificial Intelligence in more and more farming operations, there is always the looming threat of being hacked. This research proposal is about not only how technology can be used in agriculture, but also possible ways to limit damages caused by hacking.
Food security is one of the most important things for any society to focus on, and with the increasing amount of AI in farming, it’s no surprise that this can cause the farms to be hacked. Not only do we not need to plan for natural disasters and extreme weather, but for hackers as well. This doesn’t mean that AI farming is bad, or that technology shouldn’t be used, but that there should be a larger focus in both the agriculture and cyber security fields about how to effectively prevent hacking, and inevitably, how to recover from being hacked.
Many hackers target passwords and information to steal money directly from the person or company in question. If an agricultural operation was hacked, they may lose a lot of money, and that might start charging more money for their produce or go bankrupt entirely. Both of these options are bad for everyone involved, which is why learning how to recover from being hacked is essential.
Having a team of trained security analysts is important, since they are trained to spot how the hacker got the information and formulate plans on how to prevent future cyber-attacks. While having a trained team of security analysts might be costly, it is oftentimes worth it in the long run.
Sincerely, Lillian Martin