Precision agriculture and information security: a fundamental alliance for business success

The field is, today, the vanguard of the Brazilian economy and intelligence. Responsible for 23,5% of GDP in 2017, agribusiness is profitable, productive and continues to grow. This sector is experiencing a silent evolution: the search for fully automated management. According to research carried out in 2017 by ESALQ (Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz), 45% of the Brazilian rural sector already uses precision agriculture methods and technologies in their crops. This is equivalent to 9 million hectares cultivated using this concept. Precision agriculture allows for a more rational exploration of production processes, promoting the optimization of the use of inputs, increasing profitability and minimizing environmental impacts. It is precision agriculture that, believes the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), will allow the world to produce 70% more food by 2050.

A goal like this can only be achieved through disruption: the digitalization of agribusiness is a path of no return, which requires the entrepreneur to understand both the benefits and challenges of this leap.

One of the critical points is to guarantee the security of the information that drives this sector.

The digital criminal's target is information assets or vulnerabilities in the network infrastructure. The result of criminal action can be the theft of intellectual property or the unavailability of physical agribusiness assets.

Among the information assets, business management applications that cover all agribusiness processes stand out. This vision also includes data extracted from IoT (Internet of Things) sensors; Another strategic point is the collaboration and electronic mail environment. Agribusiness also already has sophisticated BigData, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence platforms. Companies in the sector also use robotics applications present in drones, among other devices.

Precision agriculture demands an IT environment in which the greater the amount of data collected, processed and analyzed, the more accurate the diagnosis will be on how to increase the productivity and profitability of the business..

This treasure trove of information is also the target of digital criminals.

Brazil is in the path of an unprecedented number of attacks originating from anywhere in the world. This is what SonicWall Security Center points out, a platform maintained by SonicWall that monitors cyber attacks around the world in real time. The economic role of agribusiness in Brazil puts companies in the sector on the radar of cybercriminals.

Ransomware

The SonicWall Security Center showed that, in March 2018, in the State of São Paulo alone, more than 3 million ransomware attacks were recorded targeting companies in this State. It is worth remembering that, in 2016, 19,3% of the national agribusiness sector's revenue came from corporations located in the State of São Paulo. It is clear, therefore, that if São Paulo is a region under attack by virtual criminals, this could affect major players in agribusiness. If we assume that other states make use of data centers located in São Paulo, it is possible that this scenario has a national reach.

An objective response to this challenge is to adopt next-generation firewalls that integrate different layers of protection. This includes advanced techniques such as sandboxing – a solution that protects the field company against advanced and persistent attacks and even blocks attacks against processors. This type of platform must be capable of being updated online, in real time, in addition to offering implementation and management resources that reduce the costs of ownership of this environment.

Unavailability

Brazilian agribusiness conducts business via the Web – and this can also be a target for digital criminals. Attacks often target the unavailability not only of data centers or servers, but also of smart devices (IoT) or mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. These mobile devices are used in the field to capture data.

The large geographic areas of the largest companies in the sector make it essential that users on the move can, with performance and security, access, through mobile devices, the applications that make the business run. Within this framework, it becomes essential to centralize the management of security resources: these technologies must be implemented and managed with as little effort and cost as possible and without requiring IT and security specialists to travel to remote locations on the property.

Data breach

Agribusiness companies in Brazil compete in the global arena and the intelligence of their applications and the data produced are strong differentiators. Through data breaches, cybercriminals can steal this intellectual property.

The fight against this type of attack requires using solutions with several layers of security. Taking into account that, today, more than 70% of traffic is encrypted, not having active resources to inspect this type of traffic is turning a blind eye to an abyss of electronic pests and malicious codes. These threats use encryption to camouflage themselves and invade, sometimes for months, computational resources (networks and systems).

Phishing

Professionals from agribusiness companies use electronic mail platforms as the basis for their interactions. Data collected and analyzed by the SonicWall Security Center indicates that Brazil is among the countries with the highest incidence of Spam and Phishing. The operating strategy of digital criminals is to generate emails loaded with malicious code. In the case of Phishing, the answer is to combine technologies such as email protection solutions and secure remote access with innovative user training strategies.

The agribusiness sector is strategic for Brazil and the world. The transformation brought about by precision agriculture goes far beyond technology – profound cultural changes have to happen for this transition to be made. Still, in the era of digitalization of the economy, there is no escaping the fact that IT and IT security are essential inputs for the success of agribusiness.