EXPLORE AGDEFENDERS
Overview | About | Research | Education | Extension & Outreach | Rural Cooperative Defense | News & Events
OUR APPROACH
Our Mission: AgDefenders brings together North Carolina's agricultural and cybersecurity ecosystems to develop practical solutions, strengthen shared cybersecurity capacity, and build resilience across agricultural communities.
Cybersecurity from the roots of agriculture outward.
AgDefenders connects foundational agricultural cybersecurity, enabling technologies and capabilities, secure agricultural management, and the people and institutions that make agriculture work. Research builds evidence. Education builds knowledge and capability. Extension & Outreach translates knowledge into practice through trusted relationships and two-way learning. Rural Cooperative Defense brings the wider ecosystem together around cybersecurity challenges that are difficult to address one farm at a time.
ABOUT AGDEFENDERS
What is AgDefenders?
AgDefenders is an NC-PaCE initiative focused on the intersection of agriculture, cybersecurity, and the technologies and capabilities that keep our food, farms, communities, and rural economies strong.
We bring together people, knowledge, and partnerships to develop practical solutions, build capacity, and strengthen the resilience of North Carolina agriculture and the communities that depend on it.
OUR APPROACH
A Continuous Cycle of Impact
AgDefenders advances a continuous, connected cycle of listening, research, learning, translation, application, sharing, strengthening, and learning again. Research, Education, Extension & Outreach, Rural Cooperative Defense, and the agricultural ecosystem remain connected throughout the cycle.
INSTITUTIONAL COLLABORATION
Working Across Cybersecurity and Agriculture
AgDefenders grew from collaboration between NC-PaCE and NC State Extension beginning in August 2024. The collaboration expanded in January 2025 to include N.C. A&T’s Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity Research, Education, and Outreach (CREO). Since then, additional NC-PaCE institutions and collaborators have engaged around the shared challenge of strengthening cybersecurity across North Carolina agriculture.
NC-PaCE
North Carolina Partnership for Cybersecurity Excellence — the initiative’s home for cybersecurity collaboration.
NC State Extension
Research-based education and outreach through North Carolina’s land-grant Extension partnership.
N.C. A&T CREO
Cybersecurity research, education, outreach, and collaboration through N.C. A&T’s Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity Research, Education, and Outreach.
RESEARCH
Research for a More Resilient Agricultural Future
AgDefenders advances research at the intersection of agriculture, cybersecurity, and the technologies and capabilities that support safe, secure, and resilient food systems, farms, and rural communities.
Our research is guided by real-world challenges, developed through collaboration, and grounded in North Carolina’s agricultural landscape. We focus on practical solutions that can be applied, scaled, and sustained.
OUR RESEARCH APPROACH
From a Broader Evidence Horizon to Real-World Impact
The AgDefenders Evidence Base looks beyond agriculture to build a more complete understanding of relevant research and emerging developments. By examining both agricultural and adjacent evidence, we can better anticipate research needs, identify opportunities, and inform a strong, forward-looking research agenda grounded in agricultural realities and oriented toward practical, real-world impact.
OUR RESEARCH FOCUS AREAS
Three Integrated Elements
AgDefenders organizes a broad range of research directions into three connected layers. Together, they link where cybersecurity meets agricultural management, the technologies and capabilities that span those settings, and the cybersecurity foundations needed across them.
RESEARCH AGENDA DEVELOPMENT
A structured agenda, informed by evidence and agricultural realities
AgDefenders is developing a multi-year research agenda that brings together agricultural evidence, relevant work in adjacent fields, emerging technologies, and practical questions from farms and communities. The framework is organized around eight Secure Agricultural Management Plots, six cross-cutting technology and capability areas, and five foundational cybersecurity areas.
The research agenda draws on a structured review of agricultural and related research, with independent coding used to examine and refine emerging priorities. The work is ongoing.
Eight Secure Agricultural Management Plots
STUDENT RESEARCH IN PROGRESS
Two projects, two technologies
Both treat cybersecurity as part of the research question from the start.
EDUCATION
Build Knowledge. Develop People. Prepare the Future.
AgDefenders supports education across the lifespan to build awareness, knowledge, skills, and opportunity for stronger, more resilient agricultural systems, farms, and rural communities.
We work to connect learners, educators, agricultural communities, and professional audiences so that agriculture has the people and capabilities it needs to meet current and emerging cybersecurity challenges.
A MULTIGENERATIONAL APPROACH
Learning Together for Stronger Agriculture
AgDefenders embraces a multigenerational approach, engaging people across the lifespan. Each group brings unique perspectives, knowledge, and strengths. Together, we can build a more informed, prepared, and resilient agricultural future.
EXTENSION & OUTREACH
Putting Knowledge Into Practice
AgDefenders works with Extension, agricultural communities, and partners to translate research and education into practical solutions that strengthen agricultural cybersecurity.
Our outreach is grounded in trusted relationships, two-way engagement, and on-the-ground realities. We listen, learn, and collaborate to support producers, rural communities, and the broader agricultural ecosystem.
EXTENSION & OUTREACH IN THE CONTINUOUS CYCLE OF IMPACT
From Questions to Solutions — and Back Again
Extension & Outreach plays a vital role across the AgDefenders Continuous Cycle of Impact—connecting people, resources, and real-world experience so that knowledge leads to practice and community experience informs the next cycle.
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EXTENSION & OUTREACH RESOURCES
Practical Resources for Agricultural Communities
Extension helps turn cybersecurity awareness into farm-ready guidance. These resources support sharing, adaptation, and outreach across agricultural audiences.
Farm Cybersecurity: Tools & Checklists
Explore the Farm Cybersecurity Hub’s device inventory, introductory presentation, and other tools and checklists.
RURAL COOPERATIVE DEFENSE
Stronger Together for a More Resilient Agricultural Future
Agriculture should not have to defend itself one farm at a time.
Rural Cooperative Defense (RCD) is an AgDefenders collaborative that connects farms, cooperatives, rural communities, associations, educational institutions, government, industry, and other partners to build collective agricultural cybersecurity capacity.
RCD strengthens agricultural cybersecurity through shared knowledge, resources, and expertise. By working together, we can better understand needs and gaps, explore practical solutions, and help build a more resilient future for North Carolina’s agricultural communities.
RCD IN THE BIGGER PICTURE
A Stronger Agricultural Cybersecurity Ecosystem
RCD is a collaborative network within AgDefenders that connects people, organizations, and resources across the agricultural ecosystem. It works alongside Research, Education, and Extension & Outreach and engages a diverse set of partners to help build collective agricultural cybersecurity capacity.
NEWS & EVENTS
Stay connected with AgDefenders.
Presentations, events, announcements, and public updates from the initiative.
FEATURED EVENT · OCTOBER 6, 2026
Moving Cybersecurity from the Nerds to the Herds – Lessons from the Farm
Tuesday, October 6, 2026 · 12:10–12:50 p.m. Eastern
Join AgDefenders for a virtual presentation on strengthening cybersecurity resilience for North Carolina's small farms and agribusinesses through security awareness, skills training, workforce development, research, and collaboration.
Presented as part of the USDA Virtual Cybersecurity Expo. Registration is free.
UPCOMING · FEBRUARY 26, 2027
6th Annual North Carolina Cybersecurity Symposium
February 26, 2027 · McKimmon Center, NC State University, Raleigh
The symposium theme is “Securing North Carolina’s Critical Infrastructure.” An AgDefenders update is being planned; the presentation title and time have not yet been announced.
PAST EVENTS & PRESENTATIONS
AgDefenders in the Community
