Security threats

1. Denial of service (DOS): Smart farming is the interconnection of IoT devices through the web. The more reliable the connection, the less vulnerable it is to threats. However, when more devices, nodes and groups exist it results in DOS attacks. The DOS helps to block or stop working on its devices. One method to perform the DOS attack is by putting the data in a Faraday cage (Vacca, 2017). The cyber-​attackers find the system vulnerabilities using DOS. These attacks cause material damage (Schreier, 2012). Sometimes DOS attacks are very difficult to control. So, preventing such attacks is the best thing.
2. Supply chain: The IoT and digital systems connect to a variety of organizational environments to make the supply chain more integrated and efficient. The main purpose of integration through the food supply chain is to create adequate job opportunities in rural areas. But, in agriculture as several products have a shorter lifetime the supply chain becomes uncertain. Optimizing the supply chain using IoT technology is a future challenge (Dougados et al., 2013; Verdouw et al., 2015). By creating the authentication mechanism through access control, security awareness and cryptographic process, the supply chain attacks can be prevented (e.g., Blockchain technology, http://bita.studio/).
3. Ransomware: It is a serious threat to individuals and businesses worldwide. The IoT and information and communication technology advancements in agriculture sector face this threat. The attackers use ransomware for encrypting the farmers’ data to an unreadable format, so that they can demand a ransom to make it readable (Luo & Liao, 2009).

The global industries and individuals are looking to set up a stable foundation for smart farming and IoT applications to make them less vulnerable to cyber and security threats.