IoT Security Challenges and Solutions

This assignment delves into the critical security challenges facing the Internet of Things (IoT). It emphasizes the need to apply cybersecurity principles learned from traditional internet security to protect IoT devices and networks. The assignment encourages students to consider the evolving nature of these threats and develop robust solutions that can withstand future attacks.

Running head: IOT: SECURITY ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS
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IOT: SECURITY ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS 2
Executive Summary
Internet of Things (IoT) is considered by many as the next evolution of the internet services
as it hopes to connect all devices and gadgets to the worldwide web. In essence, IoT will
connect many devices to networks which will facilitate their data collection and analysis
functionalities, thus create new avenues for customer creation. Furthermore, critical fields
and industries of the world such as security, medicine and transportation will become part of
the IoT which in itself will create several challenges during its implementation. For one, the
number of devices/objects connected to the IoT infrastructure will dramatically increase
which will create many technical problems more so, those related to security. Now, this
report analysis some of the security issues associated with IoT as presented by fellow
researchers. Furthermore, the same report provides some solutions to the problems and also
highlights a few gaps in the existing research material.
Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT), Security, Privacy.

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Table of Contents
Content Page
Introduction........................................................................................3
Summary of discussions.......................................................................3
Important issues not addressed adequately...........................................4
Impact of IoT security issues and challenges.......................................5
Reflection..............................................................................................6
Conclusion...........................................................................................7
References............................................................................................8

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Introduction
IoT describes a future technology where devices connect to the internet and are able to
distinguish themselves from other connected devices. These functionalities will be achieved
using recognition packages that include RFID (radio frequency identification) chips, sensors
and wireless networks. For the network, the internet will be used as its the most diverse
network in existence today. On the other hand, sensors and RFID chips will be used as the
controlling infrastructure (Vandana, 2016). IoT as a technology will serve all industries
without discrimination thus will facilitate a wider and broader connectivity of systems.
According to ICT experts, IoT must have intelligent systems for it to meet its functionalities
where it will conduct business activities without any form of human involvement. Now, this
intelligence will be propagated by identity management (IM) models that will help devices to
identify themselves in a pool of many heterogeneous devices. Therefore, a given region will
have a unique IP address however, specific devices will have other unique IDs (Tanaka,
Fujishima, Mimura, Ohashi, & Tanaka, 2016).
Summary of discussions
In the first journal, Suchitra Vandana (2016), classifies the security issues facing IoT into
four major groups, those affecting; the perception layer, physical layer, network layer and the
application layer. The perception layer is at the lowest level has sensors and RFID chips
which exist as networking nodes thus have the possibility of being compromised based on
their existing connections. On the other hand, the physical layer constitutes the carrier
frequencies that can be easily jammed having identified the operational bands. The network
layer on its behalf houses the access procedures that can be hacked either by malware attacks
or by denial of service attacks. Both of these attacks would affect the technology as a whole
by interfering with the data’s confidentiality and integrity. Finally, the application layer
having the front-end resources would be compromised depending on the security features

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used by the end-users, for instance, eavesdropping and data tampering (Tasneem, Mahmoud,
Aloul, & Zualkernan, 2015).
Now, based on the security issues outlined above, one is able to understand the IoT
challenges raised by ICT experts today. For one, data confidentiality will be a big issue
because the users may lack the capability to know who accesses their information. Moreover,
the said data will be available to a large group of people who do not know each other. It will,
therefore, be a hard task to pinpoint the exact users of the information owing to the pervasive
nature of the internet which at its present form, already exhibit many integrity and
authentication problems. Therefore, considering IoT will increase the size of this ambiguous
technology, the drawbacks are seen today will also escalate to the levels of the new system
(Tanaka, Fujishima, Mimura, Ohashi, & Tanaka, 2016).
Important issues not addressed adequately
While analysing the discussions given in the IoT forums, a common trend was observed, that
of highlighting the technical problems of IoT. For instance, in the first discussion the
emphasis is given to the back-end operations more so, those found in the network layer. In
this layer, a lot of research that outlines malware attacks e.g. tag cloning is given. However,
little is discussed on the security problems facing the end users i.e. front-end IoT security
challenges. According to Royal Institute of Navigation (2016), most of the today’s cyber-
attacks are caused by the naivety of the end users which signifies the importance of
addressing the security problems caused by the application layer (Navigator, 2016).
Therefore, security problems caused by people’s ignorance should be addressed as they
would drastically minimise the security problems facing IoT. Furthermore, by addressing
these issues, IoT proponents would develop components and systems that are based on the
users’ needs.

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In addition to this, these discussions fail to highlight the link between the security issues
caused by the perception layer and those caused by the manufacturers. Remember, the
devices used to access the internet are made by different manufacturers who in most cases
prioritise on product deployment rather on product security. In the end, the end user acquires
sub-standard devices and are constantly pestered with system updates. Therefore, in the
future, IoT should aim to develop industry standards and policies that deal with the
manufacturers of the end products. Moreover, the same policies would help mitigate some of
the end user problems that facilitate intruders in their cause of accessing systems (Bitag,
2016).
Impact of IoT security issues and challenges
Any security threat that faces the internet today can be considered as a future threat for IoT
systems. In the existing technology, data problems as highlighted by the issues raised above
are at the forefront of the security issues facing IoT, from malware attacks to tags cloning and
even tag tracking systems. These security problems can greatly impair business activities by
interfering with network connections and computer performances (Hausman, Alston, &
Chapple, 2017). In light of these impairments, the following impacts of IoT security problems
are highlighted:
Capacity – IoT been an intelligent technology will require good computer resources, this will
include storage, processors and networks. The highlighted problems will impair these
resources which will end up affecting the overall capacity of the technology.
Data harvesting – many laws have been put in place to safeguard people’s information.
These laws include copyright and privacy acts that protect users’ intellect more so through
the data they provide online. The problems highlighted by this report infringe on these laws
which would affect both the individuals and the companies involved. In all, the victims’ loss

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their variable resources i.e. data, while the culprits acquire criminal records that affect their
course of life.
Time – another considerable impact of the security problems facing IoT, as many hours are
spent reinforcing system rather than conducting business. Furthermore, most of these
problems will slow down business operations because of the weight of the parasitic systems.
These illegal components of the IoT will use vital computational resources in their activities
which will deprive the legitimate activities the same resources (Hausman, Alston, & Chapple,
2017). Furthermore, a lot of time may be spent on rectifying compromised systems as
compared to fulfilling the duties of business.
Reflection
First, the IoT architecture has many faults that leave it susceptible to attacks. These attacks
stem from all layers affiliated with the technology as highlighted before where sequential
weaknesses are exhibited from the back-end resources (perception layer) to the front end
systems (application layer). Therefore, the main lesson from this discussion is that IoT
security is an important requirement of time. How is this so? In essence, security must
provide the integrity, confidentiality and authenticity of information. These components of
security, commonly known as CIA, will often change with time because of the constant
variations exhibited by security procedures (Martin & Khazanchi, 2006).
Therefore, the security problems facing IoT can only be solved by employing dynamic
communication protocols that respond to the needs of time. Furthermore, the external factors
that are associated with the technology must also be considered in the implementation of the
technology. Therefore, the sensory devices and the end users must be held with equal security
measures as those used within the distribution systems. In addition to this, the existing
methods of research should be changed, as they are heavily inclined to the authentication of
IoT systems. Now, while it is important to develop adequate access control systems, these

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components are already in place and should be strengthened by empowering the supporting
structures. This process can be done by developing standards and policies for the device
manufacturers. Moreover, the end users can be sensitized on the importance of good security
measures (Aldossary & Allen, 2016).
Conclusion
This report has highlighted the state of IoT technology by discussing the security problems it
faces. From the discussion given, these problems have been seen in all aspects of the
technology which highlights the importance of research in security measures. Furthermore,
the IoT technology has been exhibited as an evolution of the existing worldwide connection
(the internet). This link can be used by IoT proponents to expand their understanding of the
problems facing the technology. In essence, IoT developers including device manufacturers
can extrapolate the security problems facing the internet to develop adequate frameworks for
dealing with the future security problems. However, these solutions should be able to stand
the test of time for them to be successful.

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References
Aldossary, S., & Allen, W. (2016). Data Security, Privacy, Availability and Integrity in
Cloud Computing: Issues and Current Solutions. (IJACSA) International Journal of
Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Retrieved 21 August, 2017, from:
https://thesai.org/Downloads/Volume7No4/Paper_64-
Data_Security_Privacy_Availability_and_Integrity.pdf.
Bitag. (2016). Internet of Things (IoT) Security and Privacy Recommendations. A Uniform
Agreement Report, Retrieved 21 August, 2017, from:
https://www.bitag.org/documents/BITAG_Report_-
_Internet_of_Things_(IoT)_Security_and_Privacy_Recommendations.pdf.
Hausman, K., Alston, N., & Chapple, M. (2017). Protecting Your Network from Security
Risks and Threats. Inform IT, Retrieved 21 August, 2017, from:
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=419051&seqNum=9.
Martin, A., & Khazanchi, D. (2006). Information Availability and Security Policy.
Information availibility, Retrieved 21 August, 2017, from:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/729b/e826f50a51cf0f0574c2fa03017fa13ff30b.pdf.
Navigator, T. (2016). Cyber security; cyber hygiene and the use of ICT on board. The
Nautical institute, Retrieved 21 August, 2017, from:
http://www.nautinst.org/download.cfm?docid=C295570F-E71B-4CD3-
93E5DAEBC4AB2DB9.
Tanaka, S., Fujishima, K., Mimura, N., Ohashi, T., & Tanaka, M. (2016). IoT System
Security Issues and Solution Approaches. Hitachi Review, Retrieved 21 August, 2017,
from: http://www.hitachi.com/rev/archive/2016/r2016_08/pdf/r2016_08_111.pdf.
Tasneem, Y., Mahmoud, R., Aloul, F., & Zualkernan, I. (2015). Internet of Things (IoT)
Security: Current Status, Challenges and Countermeasures. International Journal for
information security research, Retrieved 21 August, 2017, from:
http://www.aloul.net/Papers/faloul_ijisr15.pdf.
Vandana, S. (2016). Internet of Things and Security Issues. International Journal of
Computer Science and Mobile Computing, Retrieved 21 August, 2017, from:
http://www.ijcsmc.com/docs/papers/January2016/V5I1201636.pdf.