On-Farm Data Security: Practical Recommendations for Securing Farm Data

Abstract

The growth in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Artificial intelligence (AI) has improved the productivity and efficiency of modern agriculture, which is commonly referred to as precision farming. Precision farming solutions are dependent on collecting a large amount of data from farms. Despite the many advantages of precision farming, security threats are a major challenge that is continuously on the rise and can harm various stakeholders in the agricultural system. These security issues may result in security breaches that could lead to unauthorized access to farmers' confidential data, identity theft, reputation loss, financial loss, or disruption to the food supply chain. Security breaches can occur because of an intentional or unintentional actions or incidents. Research suggests that humans play a key role in causing security breaches due to errors or system vulnerabilities. Farming is no different from other sectors. There is a growing need to protect data and IT assets on farms by raising awareness, promoting security best practices and standards, and embedding security practices into the systems. This paper provides recommendations for farmers on how they can mitigate potential security threats in precision farming. These recommendations are categorized into human-centric solutions, technology-based solutions, and physical aspect solutions. The paper also provides recommendations for Agriculture Technology Providers (ATPs) on best practices that can mitigate security risks.

Regional Perspective of Using Cyber Insurance as a Tool for Protection of Agriculture 4.0

“…Overall, 50% of agricultural companies lost data due to a cyber incident vs. 32% on average. The simplest but most basic recommendations for improving the data security of agricultural companies and their customers are to use high-security passwords at all stages of their operations [40]. The data transfer process itself should also be secured and use modern tools for encrypting information flows [41].…”

Protecting farmers' data privacy and confidentiality: Recommendations and considerations

“…Data security is considered an important practice in protecting the privacy of farmers (Qi et al, 2020;Hazrati et al, 2022). Proactive measures must be taken by the ATPs to check for data leakages such as loss, unauthorized access or use, destruction, modification, or unintended and inappropriate disclosure of data so that the farmers' data are kept secure.…”

“…Collected data from farms and farmers should be transferred and stored using safety protocols (Hazrati et al, 2022).…”

“…10 ATPs should present a failover and disaster-recovery plan. This recommendation requires that ATPs proactively address any probable issues such as system crashes or attacks to protect farm data (Hazrati et al, 2022). Also, the ATPs must notify farmers if a data breach takes place that causes disclosure of the data to an outside party (Hazrati et al, 2022).…”

“…13 Finally, ATPs should implement security best practices, software and hardware protocols, in the farm technologies and network. They should also continuously monitor the network for possible attacks and implement proactive strategies to mitigate the harm (Hazrati et al, 2022). These practices should include authentication, access control, encryption, and other methods.…”