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A new agricultural revolution has started. Congress must invest now to secure the future of U.S. food

At a sure level, we have to speculate how much much more the world-wide food stuff program can choose.

Historic flooding in Pakistan. Droughts throughout the American West. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The world wide food stuff procedure and the provide chains that have prolonged allowed us to transfer foodstuff from in which it is grown to where it is necessary have rarely been stretched so slender, or so much.

The implications can be seen in the value and availability of food items in most elements of the earth, which includes in the United States. Americans’ increasing demand from customers for contemporary produce will only accelerate our reliance on an significantly fragile foods method.

However, the story of this 10 years doesn’t have to be a single of shortage and pressure. A various potential is within just get to: a person of abundance, affordability, and sustainability. The U.S. has a historic possibility to shorten supply chains, safeguard very long-expression food stability, and reduce the environmental fees of agriculture. Innovation can make this possible–but only if The us invests in new farming systems. Not only to feed ourselves but to reaffirm our role as the world’s best exporter of the two foodstuff and innovation.

Except if you are in the marketplace, you may well not know that agriculture is going through a quiet technological revolution. Drones, sensors, and satellite imaging methods help farms regulate crops much more proficiently with much more information and facts and information than at any time just before. Amid labor shortages, farmers are searching to robotics and automation to fill the hole. Synthetic intelligence is now made use of to keep track of soil, command pests, and boost overall generate. These and other advancements are enabling the market to rethink its most simple assumptions: how we increase, what we increase, and how we transport what we increase.

For illustration, recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, computer system vision, and sensor and handle units have authorized our enterprise, Bowery, to increase fresh, regional, pesticide-no cost in big-scale, intelligent indoor environments with crops stacked from flooring to ceiling. This strategy, powered by renewable strength, works by using drastically much less land and h2o. It is a sustainable model that operates irrespective of altering local weather problems or significant weather conditions events.

Vertical farms can be crafted just about any place. But by placing them near the markets we serve, we can radically shorten the supply chain–decreasing disruptions and the environmental expenditures of extensive-haul delivery, and escalating the resilience of the food method overall.

Several Us residents have likely eaten vertically farmed merchandise with no knowing how in another way they’re grown. But vertical farming is only portion of the broader transformation that the environment will have to undertake. With the worldwide population projected to access almost 10 billion by 2050, and with the local weather crisis worsening, we want to create much more food items, more sustainably. This will demand collective effort–and collective expenditure.

Much like crops on a farm, a enterprise calls for the suitable inputs to improve. Wonderful suggestions, upfront cash, and a commitment at the point out and local ranges permit enterprises to prosper. But for a chopping-edge market to prosper and have a nationwide and even world-wide impact, the federal authorities has a vital position to perform as an accelerator of innovation.

Assume of photo voltaic power in the 1990s or electric cars in the early 2000s. The guarantee was obvious. But these innovations could not have come to be the transformative, ubiquitous technologies they are right now absent nationwide investments in study and advancement, infrastructure, workforce schooling, and manufacturing–and with no suitable tax incentives.

Agriculture is poised to turn into the upcoming excellent achievement story of sustainable innovation–as overseas governments significantly understand. For instance, the Netherlands–the world’s second-biggest agricultural exporter–has invested in new developing know-how and cell-based meat production. Tiny, land-inadequate states like Singapore and the UAE, as effectively as enormous international locations this sort of as Russia and China, are performing to make foodstuff techniques that can withstand the transforming weather and reduce their reliance on tumultuous trade relationships.

The U.S. should do the exact. The world-wide troubles of weather modify and food insecurity will accelerate the development of new farming systems everywhere people stay and try to eat. The usa has an possibility to guide this revolution and to distribute the rewards all around the entire world. As a matter of foreign coverage and financial coverage, the new Congress need to act.

In 2023, Congress will reauthorize the farm monthly bill, as it does each five many years. No legislation states extra about the relevance we assign agriculture. This time, the monthly bill need to enable speed up the technological advancements underway, rising domestic food creation, and strengthening the source chain. The farm invoice need to also prioritize workforce enhancement, planning the subsequent era to go after professions in high-tech farming and positioning our study institutions, land-grant universities, and Historically Black Schools and Universities as hubs of agricultural innovation.

Previous yr, to improve domestic manufacturing, a bipartisan the greater part in Congress doubled the research and development tax credit rating for experienced companies and made an investment tax credit score for the semiconductor marketplace. Congress will have to get the similar approach to agriculture.

A short while ago, all 50 customers of the Countrywide Association of Point out Departments of Agriculture–both Republicans and Democrats–unanimously endorsed expenditure tax credits as 1 way to support scale indoor farming, supplied its significant upfront cash expenses. These types of a policy must also apply to outdoor specialty crop growers, who face equivalent money charges as they up grade their technique with robotics and automation.

From the steel plow to the fuel-powered tractor to new breeding systems, American innovation has led to advances in agriculture that have benefited the overall earth.

Each our probable and the imperative to satisfy it have never ever been much better. Congress must do more than boost the present-day system–it should invest in the long run of food items.

Irving Fain is the founder and CEO of Bowery.

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15 ways to secure your WordPress site

As a marketer, SEO or web developer, you know how important it is to keep your WordPress site secure.

From using strong passwords and updating plugins to installing a security plugin and monitoring traffic, these tips will help you keep your site safe from hackers.

Why security matters for SEO

Website security is often overlooked. However, site security is essential for SEO and digital marketing.

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS), powering millions of websites.

However, WordPress sites are also susceptible to attacks which can lead to:

Site hijacking.
Malware injection.
Phishing scams.
And more.

All of these can damage your reputation, hurt your SEO, and cost you money. That’s why it’s important to take proactive steps to secure your WordPress site.

There are a number of reasons why WordPress is a target for hackers.

Because the CMS is so popular, there are more potential targets.
As it is open source, the code is available for anyone to view and study. This makes it easier for hackers to find vulnerabilities.
Due to its ease of use, many people don’t take the time to properly secure their WordPress site.

As a result, hacked WordPress sites are a major source of malware and spam.

Why security matters for WordPress

WordPress’s large user base makes it a prime target for hackers.

Malware, backdoor and SEO spam issues account for the leading types of attacks across WordPress, according to Sucuri.

What’s most relevant to SEO is how attackers are using WordPress websites to steal traffic for their own nefarious means. Typically, the methodology is to redirect traffic away to a malicious website or inject spam links on your website.

This not only benefits the attacker but can also damage your website’s reputation and potentially harm your user base.

How to secure your WordPress site

Let’s dive right into the fun bits of how you can get right into securing your WordPress site.

The majority of these tactics are completely free and require minimal technical expertise.

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1. Add a CDN-level firewall

Any website is susceptible to attack from bots and other malicious actors. A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack can overload a server with requests, causing it to crash and making the site inaccessible.

A CDN-level firewall adds an additional layer of security by identifying and filtering out suspicious traffic before it reaches the server. This can help to protect your site from DDoS and other bot attacks.

In addition, a CDN-level firewall can also improve the performance of your website by caching static content and delivering it more quickly to visitors. As a result, adding a CDN-level firewall is an effective way to secure your website and improve its performance.

Regularly changing your login URL may seem like a small security measure, but it can actually deter hackers from finding easy access to your website.

By constantly changing your login URL, you make it more difficult for hackers to guess or brute force their way into your site.

There are ways to change the URL manually, but most hosting providers recommend using plugins to manage this.

Adding a JavaScript (JS) challenge to your login page will help ensure that only authorized users, not bots, are able to access your site.

When enabled on the page, it serves as a security check to validate that the request is coming from a browser capable of executing JavaScript.

The challenge requires no interaction from the user but adds a short delay (less than five seconds) until the browser finishes processing the JavaScript.

It is crucial to limit the number of allowable login attempts to deter hackers from using brute force methods and gaining access to accounts. Doing so makes it more difficult for hackers to guess your password and prevent them from accessing your account even if they have your username.

In addition, limiting login attempts helps to protect your account from being locked out if someone else tries to guess your password.

5. Secure all passwords and enable two-factor authentication

Another way to make your WordPress site more secure is to improve the difficulty of your passwords and enable two-factor authentication.

Passwords are often the first line of defense against hackers, so it’s important to choose ones that are hard to guess. A good password should be at least eight characters long and include a mix of letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and symbols. Avoid using easily guessed words like “password” or your birthdate.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second form of identification, such as a code sent to your mobile phone, email address or authenticator app before you can log in. This makes it much harder for hackers to gain access to your site even if they know your password.

6. Remove XML-RPC.php

A simple measure to secure your WordPress site is to remove the XML-RPC.php file. This file allows anyone to remotely access your WordPress site, which can give hackers the ability to inject malicious code or take over your site entirely.

Additionally, attackers can conduct brute-force login attempts through this file, so even if you secure your login page, attackers can gain access through it.

Fortunately, removing the XML-RPC file is a relatively straightforward process. Simply connect to your site via FTP and delete the file from your server. Once you have done this, be sure to update your .htaccess file to prevent any further access to the file.

7. Remove WP and plugin versions

Hackers are always finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities and break into websites. That includes looking at the WordPress and plugin versions you are using.

If you are running an outdated version, it may have known security issues that can easily be exploited. That’s why you must keep your WordPress installation and all plugins up to date.

That said, zero-day exploits exist and knowing which version of a plugin or WordPress core you’re using can clue in hackers how to gain access to your website.

The comment section is among the most vulnerable parts of any website. As this section is often left unmoderated, it can be easy for hackers to insert malicious code into otherwise innocent-looking comments.

As a result, website owners need to be vigilant in moderating the comment section and ensuring that only safe content is allowed.

9. Reduce plugins

Having too many plugins – or worse, unused and duplicate plugins – can actually jeopardize the security of a WordPress site. That’s because each plugin represents a potential point of entry for hackers.

By reducing the number of plugins on a WordPress site, owners can help to reduce security risks. It can also help to improve site performance by reducing the number of requests that the server has to process.

10. Set up auto-update on plugins

Using WordPress’s native auto-update feature is a straightforward way to ensure that all installed plugins and themes are up to date.

This is especially important for plugins and themes that handle sensitive data, such as credit card information or personal records. In addition to security benefits, auto-updates also ensure that all installed software is compatible with the latest version of WordPress – improving your site’s stability.

11. Check open ports on the server

While open ports on a web server may offer some advantages, they also create security vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers.

To determine if there are any vulnerable ports on your server, run an Nmap scan. If you discover any open ports, work with your web hosting provider to close or filter them.

A safer option would be to work with a notable WP-managed hosting provider who locks down their ports.

12. Ensure SSL is set up properly

SSL certificates are an important part of website security. They encrypt communication between a website and its visitors, making it difficult for hackers to intercept data.

However, SSL certificates can be vulnerabilities in themselves if not properly configured. Outdated or unpatched SSL certificates can be exploited by hackers, allowing them to gain access to sensitive information. Renewing SSL certificates regularly ensures that they are up to date and less likely to be exploited.

In addition, setting up SSL certificates properly in the first place can prevent potential vulnerabilities. For example, ensuring that only strong cipher suites are used can make it more difficult for hackers to crack the encryption.

Security headers prevent malicious code injection and mitigate the risk of cross-site scripting attacks. Adding them also helps block payload-based attacks and reduce the chances of your site being compromised by malware.

Some types of security headers I recommend adding to your website include:

Referrer policies.
HTTP Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS).
A content security policy.
X-Frame options.
X-Content-Type-Options.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) protection.

14. Set up daily backups

Any website owner knows that there is always a risk of data loss due to hacking, power outages, or other unexpected events. That’s where daily backups come in handy. If your site does get compromised, you will have a fallback option that you can use to restore your site.

There are many different ways to create backups, but a popular method is to use a WordPress plugin. However, I recommend working with a web host that takes automatic daily backups for you as part of their core services.

15. Run final security tests

Before you can relax and enjoy your newly secured WordPress website, there’s one last step you need to take: run a final security scan to check for any vulnerabilities that might have been missed.

There are many different security scans available, both free and paid. Which one you choose is up to you, but it’s crucial to make sure the scan you choose is comprehensive.

Once the scan is complete, take a close look at the results. If any vulnerabilities were found, take steps to fix them right away.

Secure your WordPress site for better search performance

By following these 15 steps, you can help to secure your WordPress website and protect your data. While no system is 100{4224f0a76978c4d6828175c7edfc499fc862aa95a2f708cd5006c57745b2aaca} secure, these steps will make it much harder for hackers to gain access to your site.

In addition, be sure to keep all software up-to-date, as security patches are released regularly.

Finally, run regular security tests on your site to ensure that new vulnerabilities have not been introduced. By taking these precautions, you can help keep your website safe from attack.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

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About The Author

John McAlpin leads the SEO strategy for Cardinal Digital Marketing, an Atlanta SEO agency that focuses on serving enterprise healthcare companies across the United States. Currently located in Colorado Springs, McAlpin is deeply engaged in both the local and national SEO community and has a strong background in technical SEO, web development, and digital marketing strategy. McAlpin also provides freelance web development services for WordPress hosted sites.

The Rise of Rust, the ‘Viral’ Secure Programming Language That’s Taking Over Tech

These forms of vulnerabilities aren’t just esoteric application bugs. Exploration and auditing have frequently discovered that they make up the greater part of all application vulnerabilities. So while you can even now make issues and create security flaws whilst programming in Rust, the chance to eradicate memory-basic safety vulnerabilities is major.

“Memory-security problems are accountable for a substantial, huge percentage of all noted vulnerabilities, and this is in vital programs like operating systems, mobile telephones, and infrastructure,” claims Dan Lorenc, CEO of the program offer-chain safety firm Chainguard. “Over the decades that folks have been writing code in memory-unsafe languages, we have tried out to improve and establish better tooling and teach folks how to not make these mistakes, but there are just limitations to how substantially telling persons to check out more difficult can basically operate. So you require a new engineering that just will make that total course of vulnerabilities not possible, and which is what Rust is ultimately bringing to the desk.”

Rust is not without the need of its skeptics and detractors. The effort and hard work in excess of the final two a long time to put into practice Rust in Linux has been controversial, partly because incorporating help for any other language inherently boosts complexity, and partly since of debates about how, specifically, to go about creating it all perform. But proponents emphasize that Rust has the required elements—it does not lead to efficiency reduction, and it interoperates nicely with computer software published in other languages—and that it is important simply because it fulfills a dire have to have.

“It’s much less that it is the appropriate selection and much more that it is ready,” Lorenc, a longtime open-supply contributor and researcher, claims. “There are no serious possibilities appropriate now, other than not executing everything, and which is just not an possibility anymore. Continuing to use memory-unsafe code for one more decade would be a significant difficulty for the tech industry, for countrywide protection, for every little thing.”

Just one of the most significant problems of the changeover to Rust, nevertheless, is precisely all the decades that developers have now put in writing critical code in memory-unsafe languages. Composing new program in Rust doesn’t deal with that large backlog. The Linux kernel implementation, for case in point, is commencing on the periphery by supporting Rust-centered motorists, the plans that coordinate between an functioning program and hardware like a printer.

“When you’re performing operating systems, speed and functionality is usually major-of-mind, and the pieces that you’re working in C++ or C are commonly the elements that you just can’t operate in Java or other memory-safe and sound languages, for the reason that of overall performance,” Google’s Kleidermacher suggests. “So to be in a position to run Rust and have the exact same functionality but get the memory safety is truly cool. But it’s a journey. You can’t just go and rewrite 50 million strains of code overnight, so we’re thoroughly finding security-significant factors, and above time we’ll retrofit other issues.”

In Android, Kleidermacher suggests a good deal of encryption-essential-administration capabilities are now published in Rust, as is the private online communication characteristic DNS in excess of HTTPS, a new version of the ultra-wideband chip stack, and the new Android Virtualization Framework utilized in Google’s custom Tensor G2 chips. He adds that the Android crew is ever more changing connectivity stacks like all those for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to Rust due to the fact they are dependent on elaborate industry specifications and are likely to consist of a whole lot of vulnerabilities. In limited, the method is to start out receiving incremental security gains from converting the most uncovered or critical software elements to Rust very first and then working inward from there.

Blockchain technology could provide secure communications for robot teams | MIT News

Visualize a staff of autonomous drones equipped with advanced sensing gear, searching for smoke as they fly superior earlier mentioned the Sierra Nevada mountains. After they place a wildfire, these leader robots relay instructions to a swarm of firefighting drones that pace to the web-site of the blaze.

But what would materialize if just one or much more leader robots was hacked by a malicious agent and began sending incorrect directions? As follower robots are led farther from the fire, how would they know they had been duped?

The use of blockchain technological innovation as a conversation instrument for a staff of robots could offer security and safeguard versus deception, in accordance to a research by scientists at MIT and Polytechnic College of Madrid, which was printed today in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. The investigate could also have applications in metropolitan areas where by multirobot techniques of self-driving automobiles are providing products and relocating individuals across town.

A blockchain offers a tamper-proof history of all transactions — in this scenario, the messages issued by robot workforce leaders — so follower robots can sooner or later detect inconsistencies in the data path.

Leaders use tokens to signal movements and increase transactions to the chain, and forfeit their tokens when they are caught in a lie, so this transaction-based mostly communications system limitations the variety of lies a hacked robotic could spread, in accordance to Eduardo Castelló, a Marie Curie Fellow in the MIT Media Lab and direct creator of the paper.

“The globe of blockchain outside of the discourse about cryptocurrency has several things underneath the hood that can make new strategies of understanding security protocols,” Castelló says.

Not just for Bitcoin

Even though a blockchain is ordinarily made use of as a protected ledger for cryptocurrencies, in its essence it is a listing of knowledge constructions, recognized as blocks, that are linked in a chain. Every single block contains facts it is intended to store, the “hash” of the info in the block, and the “hash” of the past block in the chain. Hashing is the process of changing a string of textual content into a sequence of exclusive numbers and letters.

In this simulation-centered examine, the data saved in each and every block is a established of instructions from a chief robotic to followers. If a destructive robotic tries to alter the articles of a block, it will alter the block hash, so the altered block will no for a longer period be related to the chain. The altered directions could be conveniently ignored by follower robots.

The blockchain also supplies a long term report of all transactions. Since all followers can eventually see all the directions issued by leader robots, they can see if they have been misled.

For instance, if five leaders send messages telling followers to transfer north, and one particular leader sends a concept telling followers to shift west, the followers could ignore that inconsistent route. Even if a follower robotic did transfer west by error, the misled robotic would sooner or later comprehend the error when it compares its moves to the transactions stored in the blockchain.

Transaction-primarily based interaction

In the program the researchers created, every leader gets a preset selection of tokens that are utilized to insert transactions to the chain — just one token is necessary to insert a transaction. If followers ascertain the data in a block is phony, by examining what the bulk of chief robots signaled at that distinct phase, the chief loses the token. The moment a robot is out of tokens it can no longer ship messages.

“We envisioned a program in which lying expenses funds. When the destructive robots operate out of tokens, they can no extended unfold lies. So, you can restrict or constrain the lies that the system can expose the robots to,” Castelló says.

The scientists tested their program by simulating several observe-the-chief conditions wherever the number of malicious robots was identified or mysterious. Utilizing a blockchain, leaders despatched instructions to follower robots that moved throughout a Cartesian aircraft, though malicious leaders broadcast incorrect directions or attempted to block the route of follower robots.

The researchers found that, even when follower robots have been in the beginning misled by destructive leaders, the transaction-centered method enabled all followers to eventually access their destination. And for the reason that just about every leader has an equal, finite range of tokens, the scientists created algorithms to determine the utmost selection of lies a malicious robot can explain to.

“Since we know how lies can impression the procedure, and the utmost damage that a destructive robotic can induce in the technique, we can work out the highest sure of how misled the swarm could be. So, we could say, if you have robots with a specific amount of battery lifetime, it doesn’t definitely make any difference who hacks the procedure, the robots will have sufficient battery to reach their target,” Castelló claims.

In addition to permitting a method designer to estimate the battery everyday living the robots require to entire their task, the algorithms also help the consumer to figure out the total of memory needed to store the blockchain, the quantity of robots that will be essential, and the size of the path they can travel, even if a specified percentage of leader robots are hacked and grow to be destructive.

“You can style your procedure with these tradeoffs in intellect and make a lot more informed conclusions about what you want to do with the process you are likely to deploy,” he suggests.

In the upcoming, Castelló hopes to establish off this perform to make new stability systems for robots applying transaction-dependent interactions. He sees it as a way to build have confidence in concerning humans and groups of robots.

“When you turn these robot methods into public robotic infrastructure, you expose them to destructive actors and failures. These techniques are useful to be capable to validate, audit, and recognize that the method is not likely to go rogue. Even if specified associates of the procedure are hacked, it is not likely to make the infrastructure collapse,” he suggests.

The paper was co-authored by Ernesto Jiménez and José Luis López-Presa of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. This investigate was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Analysis and Innovation Method, the Regional Federal government of Madrid, and the MIT Global Science and Technologies Initiatives International Seed Fund.