YOUR BEST PRACTICE
Preventing irrigation
L
ast April, irrigation systems were disrupted in Israel in a cyberattack that once again demonstrates the
threats faced by industrial control systems. As reported in numerous industry and mainstream media outlets, hackers targeted water controllers for irrigation systems at farms in the Jordan Valley, as well as wastewater treatment control systems belonging to the Galil Sewage Corporation. Farms were warned by Israel’s National Cyber Directorate prior to the incident, being instructed to disable remote connections to these systems due to the high risk of cyberattacks. Roughly a dozen farms in the Jordan Valley and other areas failed to do so and had their water controllers hacked. This led to automated irrigation systems being temporarily disabled, forcing farmers to turn to manual irrigation.
The attackers targeted programmable logic controllers. Information about these controllers, like many controllers by other manufacturers, including default passwords and configuration options, is available online, and the devices run various software components that can also be targeted by hackers. The impacted farms likely left their ICS exposed to the
28 Irrigation TODAY | Winter 2024
internet and may have also used weak or default passwords, allowing hackers to easily gain access and cause disruption.
These attacks illustrate how easy it can be to hack industrial systems due to many organizations failing to implement even the most basic security measures, such as changing default passwords and leaving unprotected systems exposed to the internet.
DIGITAL AGRICULTURE AND CYBERSECURITY THREATS
Today, farmers and agriculturalists can harness the power of technology to optimize water usage, conserve resources and increase productivity.
The future of farming is advanced technology and already there are many examples of technologies controlled by smart devices and computer systems. However, as farms and farm equipment become connected, farmers must consider and plan for the operational risks of interference with networks and Internet of Things devices providing data. With the increasing reliance on technology in agriculture, the risk of cyberattacks
By Cody Bann
on these systems has also risen, which can have serious implications for the agricultural industry.
Because food and agriculture are critical sectors of our economy and livelihood, if they’re compromised the ramifications could be immense. This was the impetus for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory creating the Food and Agriculture Risk Modeling project, which includes a team of data scientists, cybersecurity experts and researchers with agriculture and food backgrounds.
According to Mary Lancaster, who leads the FARM project, cyberattacks not only affect the environment and livestock but can cause harm to humans too. “This is a huge problem space that no one else is addressing, but we’re making progress.”
As a result of introducing IoT and connected infrastructure to farms, the agriculture sector will develop new ways to manage and improve operations. However, incorporating IoT systems to the sector amplifies various cyber risks, as Israel experienced with the irrigation attack. Cyberattacks on smart farming infrastructure, like irrigation systems,
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