Old MacDonald had a smart farm: Building a testbed to study cybersecurity in smart dairy farming

With the advent of modern smart farming and agritech technology, farms are increasingly becoming an example of a cyber-physical system (CPS). For example, a modern dairy farm will feature internet-of-things (IoT) devices for monitoring animals and fully automated milking parlors. When considering the cyber security of CPS, we often talk about critical national infrastructure (CNI) with a focus on heavy industries such as energy generation, water treatment, and manufacturing, which all have a long history of digitization. Food supply is also considered part of CNI, so it is essential to consider it. A cyber attack on a farm can impact food supply, reduce revenue for farmers, and impact animal welfare. The security of smart farming has not been widely explored, and there is a lack of realistic testbeds that evaluate the security of agritech devices. This paper discusses the design of such a testbed, focusing on the dairy farming sector. We provide an overview of the testbed and discuss the challenges and lessons learned during the design and build process. We also present some early results from our analysis of the devices and software within the testbed and discuss future research directions.