Cybersecurity

Third Chinese National Accused of Smuggling Biological Materials into Michigan

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 15:02:21 GMT

Another Chinese national is accused of smuggling biological materials related to roundworms into the U.S. for work at a University of Michigan laboratory. This is the third such charge of a Chinese national by the U.S. federal government in a week.

Chengxuan Han is charged with smuggling goods into the United States and making false statements, according to a criminal complaint , said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan on Monday.

“The alleged smuggling of biological materials by this alien from a science and technology university in Wuhan, China — to be used at a University of Michigan laboratory — is part of an alarming pattern that threatens our security,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr., in a prepared statement. “The American taxpayer should not be underwriting a PRC-based smuggling operation at one of our crucial public institutions.”

On June 8, 2025, Han arrived at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on a J1 visa. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers conducted an inspection of Han, during which Han made false statements about the packages and the biological materials she had previously shipped to the United States.

CBP officers also found that the content of Han’s electronic device had been deleted three days prior to her arrival in the United States.

At the conclusion of the border inspection, Han was interviewed by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and ICE HSI.

During this interview, Han admitted to sending the packages, admitted that the packages contained biological material related to roundworms, and admitted to making false statements to the CBP officers during her inspection.

“The FBI has zero tolerance for those who violate federal law and remains unwavering in our mission to protect the American people,” said Cheyvoryea Gibson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, in a prepared statement.

Han is pursing a doctoral degree from the College of Life Science and Technology in the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint.

The Detroit Free Press reports Han made an initial appearance June 9 in federal court and was temporarily detained. A detention hearing is set for June 11, according to court records.

Less than a week ago, on June 4, AgWeb reported two Chinese nationals had been charged with trying to smuggle a fungus , Fusarium graminearum, into the United States.

Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy, smuggling goods into the U.S., false statements and visa fraud.

Jian is currently in U.S. custody where she awaits a detention hearing June 13. Liu, who had attempted to enter the U.S., was returned to China following questioning by U.S. customs officers.

Your next read: Chinese Scientist Accused of Smuggling ‘Potential Agroterrorism Weapon’ Into the U.S.

Speed To Burn: How Farmers Edge Flexed Its Muscle With Conduit Build Out

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 22:08:00 GMT

Farmers Edge is pulling the curtain back on its role building out and powering the back end of the Conduit online platform.

Conduit is a digital e-commerce platform that is connecting farmers with crop protection solutions. The website officially opened for business back in April 2024, launched by Iowa-based Landus Cooperative.

RELATED: How Landus Is Blazing A New Path in Ag Retail

According to Farmers Edge CEO Vibhore Arora, his outfit armed Conduit with a technology strategy and development team to launch its customized online crop inputs storefront in under six weeks.

What Farmers Edge specifically brought to the table was substantial: two decades of agronomic experience, $100M in R&D, and 100+ in-house experts, all right there ready to roll from within its Managed Services division.

“We realized, I’ve been in the CEO seat now for 2.5 years, and my first mandate was to inspect the business and learn our customer’s pain points,” Arora says. “We spoke to over a 100 customers – from large agribusinesses and cooperatives to independent ag retailers and even small family farms – and we realized there is a lot of interest in trying to use technology and digital solutions in farming.

“But many of these businesses don’t have the ability in-house to build, implement, and maintain these technologies for the entire life cycle. Our thinking shifted. We have strong credentials in the digital agronomy space – we have agronomic data sets across 50 million acres and we’ve developed and launched a number of digital solutions within precision ag, sustainability, and in crop insurance. Why not offer up our capabilities to other ag businesses to help them accelerate adoption?”

While the two sides in the end matched up quite nicely, in the beginning it was pure serendipity that led to the partnership. Arora was at an industry event where he heard Landus CEO Matt Carstens speak about his vision for transforming his business into the farm cooperative of the future. It spoke directly to Arora’s ethos as an entrepreneur and serial innovator, having spent the bulk of his career climbing the corporate ladder all the way up to the executive team at Amazon.

Once he got home, Arora picked up the phone and reached out to Carstens, making his pitch to help the cooperative leader he calls a “visionary” implement the digital e-commerce aspect of Conduit.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“This is a unique project to me because I came into ag to work on a more compelling mission. When I was at Amazon, it was mostly about shipping boxes,” Arora says. “The specific value proposition of what Conduit does and what we did for Matt, digitizing the benefits of a cooperative and giving it a farmer-first feel, which is what Matt was really looking for, and now we can look at the data – we’re seeing a 10% increase annually in online transactions – clearly farmers need a safe, secure, and responsive digital platform to transact on, and it has to have strong bones and a solid structure in the back end. I think besides the speed to market that we achieved, it is the alignment between the two business teams that helped make this happen.”

“Partnering with Farmers Edge has allowed Conduit to fulfill its commitment to empowering customers with innovative technology that enhances profitability, productivity, and long-term success,” adds Matt Carstens, Conduit President and CEO.

RELATED: Four Questions With Landus President and CEO Matt Carstens

Farmers Edge Managed Services supports multiple segments across the farm ecosystem with technology outsourcing, data licensing and white-labeling, and custom technology development.

Arora says Managed Services can develop tech solutions faster and reduce the cost of building technology by 30-50% for its commercial partners. He points to tie ups with companies like TCS, Google, and InfoSys, as well a deep bench of domain and tech stack expertise, as proof that the team can help any agribusiness navigate the digital revolution.

“Anyone in ag that is looking for a solution they don’t want to build themselves in-house, we can help out you out,” he says. “Or if you already built it and now you need help maintaining it, we can help there, too.”

With Conduit now launched and in a good place, Farmers Edge Managed Services is looking for new projects and partnerships in the digital ag space, Arora says. To learn more about Farmers Edge Managed Technology Services, visit: FarmersEdge.ca.

Your Next Read: Equip Ag Retailers To Deliver New Products and Services (The Scoop Podcast)

Growmark Takes New Step Toward Data Security

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:21:37 GMT

Growmark has recently accomplished a milestone toward keeping customer data safe and secure.

The company received the System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type I compliance certification, which is a set of security standards outlining how organizations should protect customer information from security incidents such as data breaches.

“This security designation is a testimony of our commitment to the data security we provide our customers. When companies do business with us, no matter their size or location around the world, we can offer them the highest standard of data security,” said Jeff Mosley, Growmark information security manager who helped lead the project.

In order to achieve SOC 2 compliance, Growmark went through an audit conducted by Johanson Group LLP to ensure they were meeting the certification requirements for storing customer data in terms of security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy.

Johanson Group, who specializes in SOC 2 audits, reviewed the company’s controls, policies and procedures and confirmed they meet the standards for wholesale and retail agriculture and energy products and services.

For Growmark to maintain this certification, the audit process will be repeated annually.

“Our current customers, from the farm field to the boardroom, can rest assured that their data is secure when they use our digital management tools,” Mosley said.

Fraud Alert: Don’t Fall Victim to These Common Schemes

Tue, 02 Jan 2024 20:38:10 GMT

Farmers routinely handle high-dollar transactions — and the nature of the payments, often through unsecure methods, leaves them susceptible to foul play.

Those unsecure methods include mailing personal checks and buying parts from an unknown online vendor. However, one of the biggest fraud trends Angela Lewis, deposit control manager at Southern Bank in Chillicothe, Mo., is seeing involves how many operations handle employee payroll.

“We see employees commit fraud, especially through written checks from employers,” Lewis says. “Employees will steal the account number and routing number off the bottom of checks and create fake checks.”

Mail fraud and check washing is another tactic that can quickly drain thousands of dollars from an account.

“If you have mailed a check that was paid, but the recipient never received it, you may have been a victim of check washing. In fact, check washing is the No. 1 form of fraud we are seeing with our business customers right now,” Lewis says.

Check washing typically involves a check being stolen from a mailbox and then a scammer “washes” the check in chemicals to remove the ink and/or uses a copier to print fake copies of the check. Other criminals can then purchase the fake checks and deposit them.

To protect your operation from scammers, Lewis shares these tips:

Use online banking. “As a business, you should enroll in and use online banking daily to review copies of all checks issued to ensure they were not altered,” she says. “Also make sure to review the backs of checks to verify the endorsement information matches your intended payee.”
Follow up. If you are going to mail checks, make it a habit to follow up with the people or businesses to make sure they receive it.
Switch to online payment options. Your financial institution likely offers e-checks, ACH automatic drafts or other online bill pay options.
Confirm the goods. When it comes to making purchases from an unknown source, such as on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, Lewis shares it’s a good idea to meet the seller in person and verify the goods prior to sending the money. “Newer scams we’re seeing involve the use of payment apps, such as Cash App, Paypal, Venmo and Zelle, and social engineering to convince people to send money for fraudulent goods or services or to send money to fraudulent accounts,” Lewis says. “Once the funds have been sent, they are difficult to recover.”

If you do fall victim to a scam, there are a number of organizations, in addition to your bank, available to help. For example, several states have a division within their department of agriculture dedicated to this type of crime.

According to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s public information officer Kim Doddridge, the organization’s agriculture crimes unit is responsible for tracking and investigating crimes in Tennessee related to agriculture, forestry and wildland arson, animal health and agribusinesses. While many of their cases are related to livestock cruelty, arson and equipment theft, Doddridge shares they have dealt with reports of cattle purchasing scams, cattle selling scams and email scams.

In addition, USDA’s Office of the Inspector General has a fraud hotline to report violations of laws and regulations in regard to USDA programs. These can be reported anonymously either online or by phone.

USDA Allegedly Impacted by Russian-Speaking Hackers

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 17:04:38 GMT

USDA is investigating a possible data breach related to a broader hack of U.S. government agencies.

Officials in the Ag department say the data breach allegedly involves a contractor and impacts a small number of workers—roughly 30, which is a small pool considering USDA employees 100,000 people.

According to USDA, Russian-speaking hackers are the likely suspects and the department will contact and provide support to anyone affected.

The Office of Personnel Management and two organizations within the Department of Energy also were apparently targeted or breached.

Research in Ag-Tech Top-Of-Mind in Farm Bill Hearing

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 20:03:24 GMT

The Senate Ag Committee met on Tuesday to hear testimony surrounding the need for ag research funding in the coming farm bill. According to Katy Rainey, associate professor at Purdue University who gave testimony, the hearing showed “signs of hope” for ag research.

Representing the American Seed Trade Association , Rainey underscored farm bill ag research and technology funding needs:
• Public-private partnerships
• Better program support in the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS)
• Regulatory space that allows technology to come to market.

“There is a misconception that the private sector has the basic and applied research needs for row crops,” Rainey said in her testimony. “We rely on the support of farm bill funding and programs to ensure continued U.S. leadership as the provider of the best seed to the world.”

Outside of sharing her own message, Rainey heard four other testimonials as well as questions from senators. While the on-air discussion proved informative, Rainey says she was most intrigued by the conversations happening off-air.

“Senators are concerned with farmers’ bottom line, but they’re also concerned about global events,” Rainey says. “My takeaway from the senators is that there’s actually a hopeful outlook for global food security because there is so much technology. If we can support the research to get that technology to the field or to the plate that could dispel concerns across the board.”

Rainey is confident research funding will come through in the farm bill to deliver that technology.

View Across the Table

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was also in attendance of the hearing. In Ernst’s view, there are two highlights from the hearing that deserve a spotlight on Capitol Hill.

1. Cybersecurity in Ag

“We know that our adversaries are targeting our farmers [through cyberattacks] and that does affect our nation’s food chain,” said Ernst in the hearing. “What we want to see is additional work in university ag systems through research, education and outreach activities.”

Chavonda Jacobs-Young, undersecretary for research, education and economics at USDA, said the agency is working to deliver on that additional work.

“We first need to raise the awareness for needs in cybersecurity,” she says. “We also need to train — and retain — the generation of professionals who can help us in this space. That involves high-performance computing, AI and cybersecurity.”

Jacobs-Young and Ernst plan to meet and establish a partnership, along with other groups recommended by Jacobs-Young, to make a gameplan for cyber-awareness in rural America.

2. Carbon Credit Opportunities

In the research corridor, Ernst feels there are carbon questions that still need answers.

“I hear about this all the time from Iowa farmers — they want to participate in carbon markets and create healthy soils,” Ernst says. “Getting the right type of information and translating that so producers can measure carbon on their farms and in their production activities is the bigger issue.”

Ernst and Young both agree the outreach chord needs to be reconnected to rural America, but Jacobs-Young isn’t sure what tactic will flip the ignition switch.

“It’s critically important to talk to producers about what they need and how that can be delivered in a way that they will be receptive to,” said Young in the hearing. “Adoption is part of the issue we have. We can develop wonderful technologies, innovations and tools, but we struggle with producers being receptive.”

For her part, Ernst says she’ll work to allocate farm bill funding toward such programs and communicate with Young on ways to relay the program messages to farmers.

Producers with carbon questions can also seek answers in Farm Journal’s Carbon Innovation Center .

More on farm bill 2023:

Rep. G.T. Thompson Lists His 3 Farm Bill Objectives
Opinion: The Value of Partnerships Between the Agriculture and Energy Industries