When Cybersecurity Meets Food Safety

What happens when the technology we depend on to produce, transport, and protect our food becomes the very thing that puts it at risk? This week on Confessions of a Food Safety A**Hole, Gennette Zimmer and Dr. Darin Detwiler welcome Kristin King, cybersecurity and risk management expert, host of the Bytes and Bytes podcast, and author of Securing What Feeds Us: Cybersecurity in Food and Agriculture. With 27 years of experience in cybersecurity, operational technology, and critical infrastructure, Kristen has spent much of her career asking questions that too many organizations would rather avoid. And she's not particularly interested in sugarcoating the answers. From cyberattacks that disrupt food production to the vulnerabilities hidden inside our increasingly connected supply chains, Kristen explains why cybersecurity and food safety have far more in common than most people realize. But this conversation goes well beyond hackers and technology. We talk about the danger of assuming a system is secure simply because it hasn't failed yet, the false confidence that comes with certifications and digital traceability, and why organizational culture matters just as much as the technology itself. We also discuss Kristin's new book, why she wrote it, and her determination to make a complicated and often intimidating subject understandable to anyone who has a stake in our food system. Which, when you think about it, is all of us. Along the way, there's plenty of laughter, a few well-earned frustrations, some unexpected shark analogies, and a reminder that sometimes being the A**Hole in the room simply means being the person willing to ask the uncomfortable questions. Learn more about Kristin's work: Click here to go to Bites and Bytes podcast (https://www.bitesandbytespodcast.com/) Click here to purchase Securing What Feeds Us: Cybersecurity in Food and Agriculture (https://securingwhatfeedsus.com/) Because protecting our food supply isn't just about what happens in the field, the factory, or the kitchen anymore. It's also about what happens behind the screen.