The announcement a short few years ago that the Department of Agriculture is to develop a Government data centre at its Backweston Campus in Celbridge, Co Kildare, highlights just how much sensitive information on farmers that the State holds.

Indeed, if the data in the possession of the Department was cross-referenced with that held by Bord Bia, ICBF, Teagasc and various co-ops and agri-merchants, a very rounded picture of the business, and indeed personal affairs of the country’s farming population could be quite easily constructed.

With this in mind, The Dealer was mistakenly relieved that this private bank of information might be protected in a single Government-controlled data centre. I was obviously suffering under the illusion that this data centre was something akin to an online vault – a veritable Fort Knox for farmers’ digital records.

Unfortunately, recent events have demonstrated that there is no vault or safe-box which can seal this sensitive data.

Instead, the happenings at both Tirlán and Centenary have clearly demonstrated how susceptible farmers’ business data actually is to both digital misadventure and criminal intent.

Everyone is being pushed inexorably into cyberspace; and fighting this drive is like swimming against the tide.

In the 1960s, the Canadian philosopher Marshall MacLuhan coined the phrase “the global village” when outlining the likely impact of computers and modern media on society.

Although MacLuhan predicted the development of the internet 30 years before it became a reality, he cannot have anticipated the profound societal and business changes that it spawned.

The pace at which the world is changing is also frightening for those of us who remember the postman on a bike.

Indeed, MacLuhan’s global village is very quickly becoming a global townland and we’re rapidly shrinking into the global haggart.

So what can farmers do to protect their business and personal data? Very little, it appears. Tirlán has apologised to suppliers for its error. A track and retrieve process was implemented for the rambling milk statements, the matter was referred to the Data Protection Commissioner and an investigation is continuing.

That doesn’t change the fact that sensitive farmer data has been compromised, or that their private information is out there in the ether now.

Centenary’s difficulties are more sinister. The co-op fears that the perpetrators could have gained access to the names, addresses and bank account details of the co-op’s suppliers.

Cyber crime used to exist in the realm of science fiction; sadly, it is now a science fact.

Welcome to the global haggart.