New paper in Science Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
Our colleagues Georg Goldenits, and Thomas Neubauer published a new paper on Taxonomy of cybersecurity consideration in agriculture.
This paper explores the key cybersecurity threats and reliability risks in Agriculture 4.0 by mapping potential faults and pitfalls to emerging digital technologies in farming. It also discusses countermeasures, legal frameworks, and stakeholder roles across the agri-food supply chain to build secure and dependable agricultural systems.
Abstract
Agriculture is at the heart of our food production, which we all rely on. Increasing ambitions to digitalise the sector bear the risk of exposing it to various disruptions. This paper gives the main definition of dependability and security, including attributes such as reliability, availability, safety, integrity, maintainability, etc., in the context of agriculture. By first introducing the topics of cybersecurity and Agriculture 4.0, with its corresponding technological considerations, we aim to build a common understanding for various stakeholders dealing with the agri-food sector. Furthermore, we support these stakeholders by building upon these concepts and combining them in a taxonomy to navigate the complexities of cybersecurity in agriculture.
This paper addresses the most significant threats to dependability and security when digitising farming operations. We list various types of cybersecurity relevant to digital and novel technologies in agriculture, potential pitfalls regarding cybersecurity issues that come with using these technologies and present the most relevant faults that agricultural systems might encounter. For our taxonomy, we combine these by linking them to the most significant technologies in Agriculture 4.0. In addition to focusing on the cybersecurity threats, we present technological and non-technology-based countermeasures and legislative frameworks to prevent, detect and mitigate security breaches. Since this paper aims to lay a foundation for cybersecurity in agriculture, we also describe the roles of various stakeholders along the agri-food supply chain and how they participate in ensuring a secure and dependable system.
Authors
Georg Goldenits and Thomas Neubauer