Hadesty hinted at familiar protective devicessuch as firewalls and encryption. The current plans are to have an online pilot project running by nextyear and a common computing environment in 2002. But the slow pace of USDA'sonline ventures has its critics. A bigger problem for many farmers is the lack of hookups in rural America. But the farmer is no different from other consumers when it comes tosecurity.
Security is a huge issue.
USDA CIO Joseph Leo said that security issues are fighting against otherproblems to get to the head of the line. But because of the farmer's crisis,we had to pull back on our future. We don't have as many people, and we'renot going as fast.