Implications of Cyberbiosecurity in Advanced Agriculture

Abstract

The world is currently undergoing a rapid digital transformation sometimes referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. During this transformation, it is increasingly clear that many scientific fields are not prepared for this change. One specific area is agriculture. As the sector which creates global food supply, this critical infrastructure requires detailed assessment and research via newly developed technologies (Millett et al, 2019; Peccoud et al, 2018) . Despite its fundamental significance to modern civilization, many aspects of industrial agriculture have not yet adapted to the digital world. This is evident in the many vulnerabilities currently present within agricultural systems, as well as the lacking and fragmented nature of policy dictating cybersecurity stances– the field which intersects both cybersecurity and biosecurity to protect several areas within life sciences (Murch et al, 2018; Duncan et al, 2019; U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2022) . These looming oversights create dangers to advanced agricultural systems, which in turn poses risk to businesses, economies, and individuals. While there are various methods to reduce these risk factors, they ultimately depend on the careful consideration of cyberbiosecurity (CBS) by all involved. This includes the system developers, equipment engineers, and especially the end users - all of us. A conscientious team-effort can work to diminish risks and ultimately provide a safer environment for advanced agriculture and all who depend on it. This analysis explores numerous vulnerabilities within the system of advanced agriculture, discusses potential solutions to the escalating risks they present, and considers the achievable future of an advanced agricultural system which further implements the role of CBS.

Cyberbiosecurity Workforce Preparation

“…Given the growing body of knowledge in the field and the continuous automation of agricultural and biological systems, the relevance of cyberbiosecurity is unquestionable (Sinha & Dhanalakshmi, 2022;Sobien et al, 2023;Stephen et al, 2023). However, educational opportunities to prepare professionals for the future of work in cyberbiosecurity remain scarce (Adeoye et al, 2023;.…”

A Reflection on Typology and Verification Flaws in consideration of Biocybersecurity/Cyberbiosecurity: Just Another Gap in the Wall

“…Denial of access to a system, or a threat to a system's availability, involves DDoS attacks and physical destruction of data. All of these have implications to the biological field -including changing the deliveries of medical components, release of patient records, ransomware attacks on healthcare systems, or DDOS threats to publishing institutions (Mueller, 2021;Samori et al, 2022;Finch et al, 2023, Stephen, 2023. Weapons of influence (reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking and consensus) are largely used by hackers and ignored by defenders which is a problem.…”

Understanding the Landscape of Cyberbiosecurity for Integrative Educational Programming

“…The attendant security challenges and potentially devastating outcomes raise concern regarding the intended and unintended consequences of agricultural digitization. Demonstrating the need for cyberbiosecurity in modern, advanced agriculture, Stephen et al (2023) raise consciousness on critical vulnerabilities that threat actors can exploit to disrupt a farm's operations (fig. 3).…”

“…Point "B" is an example of possible cyberattacks, including minimum perturbation attacks, on drones used on farms. Such "attacks could result in the deterioration of the quality of the soil, increasing the difficulty of producing and maintaining a large quantity of agricultural goods" (Stephen et al, 2023). Also, vulnerabilities exist at the agricultural sensors and climate controls of storage silos ("C"), such as ransomware threats.…”

“…Point "E" raises awareness that "cyber attackers could target agricultural sensors tracking information regarding: the amount of sunlight received, amount of humidity, compression and density of soil, climate of environment surrounding, soil air penetration, farming activity conducted on soil, and similar data regarding the soil" (Stephen et al, 2023). The consequences of cyberattacks are immense.…”