As the Internet of Things – a network of items equipped with sensors and software that record and share data – continues to expand, so too does the potential for implementing smart technology into fields of research and various aspects of everyday life.
The agricultural Internet of Things (Ag-IoT) has grown rapidly in recent years, bringing new innovations and improvements to farmers in Nebraska and beyond. But the rapid growth of the Ag-IoT field and the introduction of new devices has left security risks unresolved, making devices and data vulnerable. University of Nebraska-Lincoln computer scientist Nirnimesh Ghose has received a $582,987 grant from the National Science Foundation's Secure and Trusted Cyberspace program and Established Programs Promoting Competitive Research (EPSCoR) to develop a solution that enables smart, scalable and secure wireless operations in modern farm environments.
Ghose, an assistant professor in the School of Computing, will work on the project in collaboration with Mehmet Can Vran, the Dale M. Jensen Dean and Professor in the School of Computing, and Youfeng Ge, professor of biological systems engineering.
Ag-IoT offers many benefits to ranchers embarking on smart and precision agriculture, including efficiency, profitability, environmental sustainability, and the ability to bridge the supply-demand gap by ensuring high yields. Unfortunately, most existing security options are unable to scale or operate at the required level within these systems, and lack of enabled privacy and security measures also poses many risks.
“The agricultural IoT space is interesting because it hasn't been studied very much and security hasn't been studied very much,” Ghose said. “There are a lot of wireless devices being deployed to collect data, but if the data is not secure, someone could inject malicious data into the network.”
Ghose explained that many farmers are using smart technology to automate tasks and gather data to guide their agricultural practices. Many farmers are deploying technology such as wireless sensors to measure soil moisture and nutrients, then adjust irrigation and fertilization practices accordingly. If an unsecured network and its data are compromised, the consequences could be dire, including flooding and damaged crops.
To address this risk, Ghose and his team are developing a new technology for identity authentication and message integrity verification, called Soil-Assisted Trust of Things Verification for Agricultural IoT. The technology solves the interference problem between simultaneous transmissions by authenticating all devices on a farm with a location-based zero-interaction protocol. The system can quickly verify incoming messages, authenticate wireless nodes based on their signals, and determine their trustworthiness based on the unique signal profile formed by soil patterns.
Additionally, cutting-edge technology ensures that your network is secured automatically, not manually, eliminating the need for additional verification steps.
“If you think about existing solutions, you have to manually enter a password to connect a device,” says Ghose. “This allows us to quickly connect all the devices within the boundaries of a farm, but with the same level of security that we currently achieve through manual operations.”
To test the proposed security measures, Goss and his collaborators will use Vran's wireless testbed site at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center near Mead. Vran's previous research has looked at bringing wireless connectivity to rural areas to deploy new agricultural techniques and tools. This project will focus on developing new secure technologies that are compatible with previous wireless innovations.
“The School of Computing has been strategically investing in agricultural IoT over the past few years,” said Vran, “and as a result, we have some very talented faculty and students in the field. We are excited to join forces with Dr. Ghose, one of our rising stars, on this project to address digital agricultural security challenges of national importance.”
Ghose said he looks forward to exploring and making progress in this unexplored but important area of research.
“Keeping farms safe is critical to our economy and nobody has a greater interest in this than us, the agricultural community,” Ghose said. “We have access to the resources to be able to develop the technology for them and because we have access we can validate it. This will be in the community's best interest.”
