Overview of Network Security in Internet of Things


Abstract—Internet of Things represents the next evolution of
the internet. Through this technology devices and objects can
autonomously connect with each other without any form of
human intervention. This paper analyses this technology
holistically, giving its properties, applications and security
issues.
Keyword: Internet of Things, Information, Sensors
I. INTRODUCTION
Information technology is always transforming
into something new every day, constantly improving
the methods of communication. The internet is the
centerpiece of this technology having the ability to
connect billions of people worldwide notwithstanding
the countless devices. Today, through this medium
communication occurs in two major forms human to
human and human to device. However, the Internet of
Things (IoT), an advancement of the internet will
facilitate machine to machine (M2M) communication.
Although it will introduce a new paradigm in the
digital world, its functional elements will depend on
the existing technological infrastructure. As such, IOT
will represent a global interconnection system of
devices that will use the standard TCP/IP protocol to
automate machine interaction. At its helm, it will be a
network of networks having billions of private and
public connections across the globe. To better
understand this technology, this paper analyses IoT
from a research perspective, detailing its
characteristics, applications and security concerns.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Background
As a concept, IoT dates back to 1982 when a
modified coke machine was used to report its functions
after it was connected to the internet. This machine
was able to highlight the drinks it had including their
respective temperatures. Later on, in the 90s, scholars
such as Mark Weiser and Bill Joy gave the blueprint of
the idea having the general elements of device to
device communication through ubiquitous networks.
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This structure is now seen today where the defining
components of IoT are in high abundance from smart
devices to autonomous communication systems [1]. In
all, the basic idea is to have an autonomous exchange
of information by unique and identifiable devices
across the world.
These devices would meet this objective
through leading technologies such as Wireless Sensor
Networks (WSN) and RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification). Essentially, each object is fitted with a
sensor device that serves the role of identification.
From this rudimentary state, objects then interact with
one another continuously exchanging data for decision
making without any form of human intervention [2].
Therefore, with the current levels of advanced
computing, the connectivity of low sensing devices are
being introduced into the world, an act that is serving
as the first phase of the IoT concept. Furthermore, with
the existing system analytics that uses data access and
data exchange the applications of IoT are already in
place, an outcome that sees over half of the internet
connections done between things. As such, IoT is not a
future technology but an existing technological
paradigm that is rapidly connecting devices across the
world.
Characteristics
A global sensing and activation function is
needed in all devices, systems, and facilities to
instigate IoT. In fact, to integrate all the various
systems of the world having different domains, a new
platform with more power and storage is needed. In
comparison to the conventional (traditional) approach,
this network should have a better battery capacity
while being of low cost and size. Now, the cost
variable facilitates all the areas of life such as the
medicine and the transportation industry providing
consistent operations [3]. On the other hand, the size is
important as the sensors should be invisible to the
naked eye, both for convenience and security purposes.
As such, IoT has the following characteristics:
Comprehensive perception: Two elements will
determine the implementation of perception;
identification and recognition. Sensors, RFID tags, and
two-dimensional barcode devices can be used for these
Overview of Network Security
Internet of Things
First A. Author, Fellow, IEEE, Second B. Author, and Third C. Author, Jr., Member, IEEE

roles as they have the ability to collect objects’
information at any given time or place. Through these
devices, communication and information systems are
invisibly integrated into the environment while sensory
networks allow people to interact with the virtual
world [4].
Reliable communication and transmission:
Using a variety of networks, object information is
transmitted across the digital world. Radio networks,
telecommunication systems, and the internet can serve
this role having a number of both wired and wireless
communication technologies. Furthermore, switching
and gateway technologies are then used to manage the
flow of information to ensure it ends up in the right
locations.
Intelligent data processing: Information is the
most important item in IoT operations, a fact that
necessitates the use of various intelligent computing
technologies to analyze data. Cloud computing,
artificial intelligence, and system analytics can be used
to support IoT applications. As such, the intelligent
technologies used to process data are the promoters of
IoT [4].
Areas of Application
IoT promises to extend the conveniences of
information technology into the real world. Unlike
before, the benefits of data analytics, unified
communication, and smart systems among other will
not be confined to digital devices but extended to the
users themselves. As such, IoT will have many
applications in the world such as smart cities/homes,
health, energy and environments among many others.
Smart Cities/homes: As an extension of the
existing home network, IoT will automate all the
objects found in homesteads from televisions sets to
physical doors. Essentially, wireless networks through
the Internet Protocol (IP) will facilitate the exchange of
information among devices while WSN will integrate
them into a holistic structure. From this environment,
multiple homes will extend their IoT functionalities to
wider areas to include cities, having the ability to
automate technological functions.
Smart Energy: Information and control can be
integrated into the energy industry to have a smart
energy management system. By collaborating ICT with
electricity networks the energy industry will be able to
have a real-time and two-way communication facility
for its services, which will create a dynamic interaction
between suppliers and consumers thus deliver
electricity in a more efficient way. Such a system will
consist of smart gadgets e.g. meters that will
automatically control and coordinate power functions
[5].
Smart Health: Consider patients whose
psychological status is to be monitored all the time.
IoT monitoring services can manage this task by
constantly collecting and analyzing psychological
information. Furthermore, using the affiliated
technologies of IoT such as cloud computing and
business intelligence predictions of patients’ outcome
can be given thus provide better tools for diagnosis [5].
III. SECURITY ISSUES
A lot of research has been done in the field of
IoT in an attempt to increase its practicality. At the
helm of this research has been its control and security
which arise because of two major factors; one, because
of its architecture that promotes an open system and
two, because of the internet infrastructure that even
today has its own security limitations. Therefore, even
before it is fully implemented, IoT inherently has
various security concerns that need addressing before a
worldwide application.
Security issues in IoT
Security of sensing devices: In its current
state, IoT does not provide adequate security protection
systems for its sensing objects. This limitation makes it
vulnerable to attacks owing to its functions that include
a variety of operations and energy requirements for the
connecting nodes. Thus, the security of the WSN,
RFID and M2M devices is affected as a variety of
security problems can be instigated. In all, the
following problems can be experienced; information
leakage, tracking, tampering, cloning, node replication,
and man-in-the-middle attacks etc. Therefore, from a
security perceptive, the issues at hand can be
categorized into three major parts. One, the secrecy
and authentication of physical devices which
guarantees the authorized systems are used. Two, the
service integrity where data collected meets all the
security requirements. Three, resource availability
where items such as network and data are made readily
available to the users [6].
Security issues in the physical layer: After the
sensing devices, the IoT model enters the physical
layer where the functions of modulation, encryption,
transmission and data reception are done. It is at this
layer that the generation of the carrier frequencies is
done which outlines serious security concern if it is
affected. Primarily, two security issues are highlighted;
node tampering and jamming. Denial of Service (DoS)