Securing the Food Pipeline from Cyberattacks
How? Controlled-atmosphere technology uses a scientific process to make apples artificially hibernate by adjusting the temperature and gasses of the atmosphere in a sealed-tight room monitored by sensors. Refrigeration technicians reduce oxygen to an extremely low percentage and carefully regulate temperature, humidity, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide. The controlled atmosphere slows down the breathing of apples and, in effect, slows the ripening process.
Calculating the Consequences
While the future of farming continues to be defined, FARM is proactively identifying the potential vulnerabilities within smart technology systems and calculating the consequences of successful cyberattacks to the economy, animals, humans, and the environment—from financial losses to contamination of food and even death.
“We’re looking at all ‘what if’ scenarios at multiple scales, including compromised equipment, supply chain issues, or even what could happen if manufacturing databases were altered to no longer meet specifications and ingredient levels,” said Lancaster. “For example, if eggs were included in something that shouldn’t have eggs, what are the impacts to people with food allergies or the manufacturer?”
A cyberattack to a controlled atmosphere room could compromise a year’s worth of fresh apple supply—or worse, cause harm to people loading or unloading the rooms.
A sample scenario in the FARM framework describes the impact of cyberattacks on animals. In the scenario, the cyberattack prevents a small, non-invasive sensor patch from reporting data points like heart function and respiration rate of cattle back to farmers, allowing the presence of sick animals in the herd to remain hidden. FARM calculates the number of cattle exposed and the likeliness of disease transmission to other animals. The consequences include death of animals, costly veterinary treatment, quarantine, and decontamination of the farm premises.
“After COVID, the world started paying more attention to how animals, plants, and human health are related,” said Lauren Charles, FARM project manager and veterinarian. “The project uses a One Health approach, aiming to secure the health of agricultural animals and crop plants, which directly impacts the health of humans and their shared environments.”
Researchers Centered in an Agricultural Community
PNNL—located in the Tri-Cities region of Washington—is surrounded by farms and food processing centers in a rich agriculture basin. It’s an ideal location for the multi-disciplinary FARM team, which includes data scientists, cybersecurity experts, and researchers with agriculture and food backgrounds.
“Being in an ag center helps provide local examples for the project. Many people on our team grew up in agriculture,” said Lancaster. “One person became interested in this work because he saw cybersecurity vulnerabilities on his own family farm, specifically in irrigation.”
Lancaster’s grandparents were farmers. Her connection to agriculture builds passion for this work, but more so, she said, “I’ve always been interested in modeling and figuring out how systems work. My background is in biosecurity and cybersecurity, and this research is an intersection of those two—it is cybersecurity meets agriculture.”
The team is partnering with farms in the region to understand more about the technology being used and the risks associated with that technology. The FARM models will continue to be developed into the next year.
“We are thinking about this work holistically because of its wide impact. Cyberattacks will not only affect the environment and livestock, but can cause harm to humans too,” said Lancaster. “This is a huge problem space that no one else is addressing, but we’re making progress.”
Jesenia Hernandez is a communication professional at PNNL. The article was originally posted to the website of PNNL.
