LoRaWAN with HSM as a Security Improvement for Agriculture Applications - Evaluation

The future of agriculture is digital and the move towards it has already started. Comparable to modern industrial automation control systems (IACS), today’s smart agriculture makes use of smart sensors, sensor networks, intelligent field devices, cloud-based data storage, and intelligent decision-making systems. These agriculture automation control systems (AACS) require equivalent, but adapted, security protection measures. Last year, the agriculture-related security theme was addressed in a presentation [1] on DECSoS '20 workshop of the SAFECOMP 2020 conference. In the workshop a simple soil sensor prototype with wireless communication system was presented. The sensor was used to demonstrate the improvements to operational security of field devices through employing cyber security protection techniques. As a continuation of the last year contribution, this paper presents the evaluation of the technologies presented in real-life deployment of AACS. It also describes operational scenarios and experiences with the implementation of security measures for AACS, e.g.: the implementation of a four-layer cyber security architecture, the signalling concept of alarms and notifications in the event of a cyber-attack, the assessment of security measures, the costs of security, and an outlook of upcoming future security requirements for wireless IoT devices which are specified by the European Commission through the European Radio Equipment Directive (RED).