ZAG Bringing IT Security Awareness to WG Center for Innovation & Technology
By Chardae Heim Z AG Technical Services, Inc.—a leading IT consulting and services company—joined the Western Growers (WG) family a few years ago as a Partner Sponsor for its Center for Innovation & Technology (WGCIT) in Salinas, CA. In addition to assisting agtech start-up companies in bringing their inventions from development to market, ZAG is dedicated to helping its larger grower clients and WG members succeed by reducing systemic risk, increasing productivity and ensuring security. “It has 100 percent been a time well spent as a sponsor of WGCIT,” said Greg Gatzke, president and co-founder of ZAG. “We’ve gotten to know more leaders throughout the ag industry.” He believes their sponsorship has made them more knowledgeable and gives them the opportunity to pass that knowledge on to their clients. ZAG, a term signifying “going in the right direction” according to Gatzke, works with a number of residents in the Center to better understand the services and products they offer. ZAG uses the information coming from the WGCIT to better understand
(IoT) devices, ZAG concentrates on the network necessary for the technology to work properly. “With the proliferation of technology everywhere, every company becomes an IT company, so we help to ensure that businesses can compete,” mentioned Gatzke. “Companies have quickly become dependent on technology, and technology is heavily dependent upon the strength of the network.” Take, for example, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, which is a network of software and hardware elements that allows organizations to: • control processes locally or at remote locations • monitor, gather and process data in real-time • directly interact with devices such as sensors, valves, pumps and motors SCADA systems serve as data-collection instruments that send information internally in order to prevent problems. Temperature sensors are a perfect example; if a temperature sensor in a cooler notices the temperature is getting too warm, it adds in extra cooling or notifies someone that the cooling is not working. The same goes for water moisture sensors in the soil and other things in the field. SCADA systems are put in place to inform growers of the issues sooner rather than later. That being said, without secure SCADA systems in place, organizations will open themselves up to greater cyber security risks. For instance, Gatzke recalled a time when a client reached out to ZAG after being breached, requesting their help on recovering data and rebuilding systems. ZAG helped the client get their business back online, but the incident resulted in a loss of millions of dollars due to the fact that their client was out of commission for many days while the breach was being repaired. Every cyber security breach presented to ZAG has been preventable, according to Gatzke, but organizations tend to be reactive rather than proactive. “Companies initially have a hard time seeing the need to invest in secure networking,” said Gatzke. “However, following the breach, they immediately realize that it would’ve been worth spending the time and money on security.” As president, Gatzke’s responsibilities include leading the company and helping to define its future. With offices in Salinas,
what is coming in the industry and how IT must be ready to support the future advancements. While many of the start-up companies working out of the WGCIT focus on groundbreaking technology such as sensors, mapping/ visualization and Internet of Things
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JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2019
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