IoT Security and Privacy: Turning on the Human Firewall in Smart Farming

Agriculture is central to the economy of the world, with sixty percent of the population depending on it for survival. Farmers are adopting smart farming technics to make agricultural practices more efficient. Smart farming takes advantage of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for performing tasks such as moisture sensing, weeding, keeping vigilance, spraying, bird and animal scaring, smart irrigation controls, the use of real time field data for intelligent decision making and smart warehouse management which includes theft detection and temperature and humidity maintenance of the warehouse. Smart devices such as watches, computers or cellphones connected to the internet can then be used to control the smart farming system. Smart farming being at nascent stage, its privacy and security needs to be researched and explored as its future partially dependent on the resolution of the privacy and security issues associated. This paper comprehensively reviews various security and privacy issues and challenges associated with IoT deployments in smart farming. Following a structured approach, a framework for smart farming security and privacy was developed in an attempt to address challenges experienced/expected. This framework can also be used for future directions for any IoT related privacy and security initiatives.