An SDR-Based Cybersecurity Verification Framework for Smart Agricultural Machines

Abstract

The agricultural sector increasingly makes use of automated and/or remotely-controlled machines to improve performance and reduce costs. These machines, called Smart Agricultural Machines (SAMs), integrate different information and communication technologies for monitoring and control purposes and can be remotely controlled by using proprietary protocols. This makes it difficult to assess the vulnerabilities of the system, in particular for non-proprietary-parties. SAMs are cyber-physical systems often employing private protocols and can be objects of attacks. In this context the paper proposes a framework, based on Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology, for cybersecurity verification of SAMs, in order to fill the gap in the state of the art since no technical standard specifically addresses cybersecurity in this environment; the paper describes the testbed developed and exploited to show the effectiveness in detecting vulnerabilities and assessing the SAM security, in particular focusing on the wireless communication channels, and reports the obtained results.

Keywords

• Smart agriculture
• autonomous machines
• cybersecurity
• software defined radio (SDR)
• wireless communications
• penetration test