Internet of Things Security Challenges

The assignment delves into the multifaceted security concerns associated with the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT). It examines various vulnerabilities inherent in IoT devices and networks, highlighting the risks posed to user privacy, data integrity, and system reliability. Furthermore, it proposes potential mitigation strategies and best practices to enhance IoT security, emphasizing the importance of robust authentication, encryption, and intrusion detection mechanisms.

Running Head: IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
IS IOT A FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY OR JUST A BUZZ
STUDENT NAME
NAME OF THE INSTITUTE

IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
Contents
1 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2 IOT Devices...............................................................................................................................3
3 Issues and solutions for IOT devices.........................................................................................6
3.1 Security Issues.......................................................................................................................6
3.2 Connectivity/Infrastructure Issues.........................................................................................6
3.3 Compatibility and Standards Issues.......................................................................................7
3.4 Privacy Issues........................................................................................................................7
3.5 Potential Solutions.................................................................................................................8
4. Diagram of the dwelling layout...................................................................................................9
5 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................9
Appendix........................................................................................................................................13
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
1 Introduction
This is the world of Digitalization which new technologies re emerging constantly and making
the life of consumer and Industry more convenient and easy. Internet of things is one such
promising technology in which devices are internet enabled and communicate with each other
based on artificial intelligence and analytics and are also capable for taking decisions. This
machine-to-machine communication without the intervention of human is used to automate
routine tasks making life convenient (Stankovic, 2014). There are numerous devices that can
interact with your mobile phone and can take decisions. There are coffees machines capable of
interacting with your mobile phones and can prepare coffee as soon as you reach home based on
your location. Such is the potential of this technology however there are lot of concerns about
data security and privacy also which are acting as inhibitors for the growth of this technology.
There is also lot of research carried out by business giants and technological leaders like Google,
GE, Philips, Amazon, Cisco, and Samsung to sort out these issues. This report will discuss about
the wide application fo IOT devices in our day to day life by focusing on some of the IOT
enabled products that can be used in day to day life. Apart from this, this report also focuses on
some of the most critical issues faced by this technology and how they can sort out.
2 IOT Devices
IOT has been rising continuously in last few years. Today, most of the products are available
with Internet enabled not only for Industry but also for the end customers. The IOT devices in
my home setting can be discussed as:
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
1. Amazon echo
It is one of the earliest products in Internet of things with large applications. It becomes a
huge hit among consumers. There are more than seventy hundred thousand reviews on
Amazon about this product. One can play any music genre or particular track from Amazon
music, Pandora, TuneIn, Spotify just using your voice.
2. Keen home Air purification and Thermostat solutions
There is no need to setup the temperature using Keen solutions. It will automatically
detect the optimal temperature based on the surroundings however you can change it. Also,
there was one drawback in other similar systems where the house needs to be at the same
temperature. Using this app, one can set the different temperatures for different rooms.
3. Water sprinkler for gardening
This is a very innovative product and has direct application in day-to-day life. When
people go on holidays, they often wonder how they will water their plants and grass. This
product is the ultimate water sprinkler controller that can be controlled form your mobile
phone and even when you are not at your home, you can water the grass.
4. IOT microwave
These IOT enabled microwave are very convenient. They can be operated from mobile
phone using the touch pad provided by the App and thus options like pre heating can be
started when one is about to reach the home to save time. Also, it can take instructions from
your voice and thus it is very handy. An
5. Security systems
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
There are security systems that can lock or unlock the doors or even cars without using
keys and can save one from tension of carrying keys and thinking if they have locked or not
locked their home properly. These locks can be controlled from the mobile app. Also, if
guests are visiting your home, these systems will generate the key valid for guest visit’s
duration, which can be shared with the guests
6. Lighting systems
It is often that people walk away from the room without switching off the lights. These
smart lights have capable of detecting the occupants in the nearby area and can switch off
themselves if no one is there. Also, if someone will walk in the room, they will automatically
become on (Da Xu & He, 2014).
7. Smart TV
Imagine accessing a website or using social media using television. Yes, this is possible
by smart TV that has built in internet and can connect to host of devices like Philips Hue
lights, Phone, camera, Amazon echo and many more. They are capable of notifying you if
any of their part needs replacement or working at sub-optimal levels. There are numerous
products available in the market by vendors like Philips, Samsung, LG, Panasonic.
8. Coffee machine
Like Microwave, there are even coffee machines available in the market that can read the
instructions directly from your mobile and you can give the instructions to keep a coffee
ready by the time you reach home, these machines will talk to your location on the mobile
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
phones and will keep your cup of coffee ready exactly when you reach home (Swan, 2012). It
will also notify in case of shortage of any ingredient or whenever it needs maintenance or
cleaning.
3 Issues and solutions for IOT devices
There are lots of issues in IOT devices that are delaying the active adoption of this
technology. Someone drives the car to the beautiful place located quite far from the city and now
wants to lock his car where there is no Internet. How the devices will be communicated in case
of lack of Internet is also needs to solve before these IOT devices see huge revolution in lifestyle
and become part of consumer culture. Some of the specific issues are as follows:
3.1 Security Issues
Security is the biggest issue in the IOT. With use of IOT, there have been so many entry
nodes available in the network that makes the network much more vulnerable. Also, as the
common man is not very tech savvy, they have no idea how to protect themselves and fall prey
to the intruders (Ganti, Ye, & Lei, 2011). One of the reason for such insecure products in the
market is the Organizations are in rush state and bringing products to the market to get first
mover advantage without properly testing them. There should be a rule or policy that IT products
should be secure enough and compliant to various parameters and only then should be use for
public.
3.2 Connectivity/Infrastructure Issues
Currently, centralized client server mechanism is mostly used to authenticate and
authorize devices to connect to different nodes in a network. This is fine as long as there are few
devices but as per as the Gartner there will be more than 30 billion IOT devices by 2020 and thus
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
centralized systems will become bottlenecks (Heer, et al., 2011). There are new models like Fog
computing models, decentralized networks, block chains that are also the promising technology
to handle such infrastructure issues (Roman, Zhou, & Lopez, 2013).
3.3 Compatibility and Standards Issues
IOT is very fragmented industry with so many players and so many technologies
competing against each other. There are issues due to lack of common technological standards,
hardware standards, lack of standard protocols for machine to machine communication, lack of
compatibility in embedded software and firmware between many devices (Babar, et al., 2010).
With this rapid change, it is also possible that many of these players, new technologies, and new
manufacturers of IOT device will go out of business in few years and will their device,
technology work without support. Thus, it is important that all vendors should adopt common
standards. It can also lead to a consortium situation where few players are collaborating and
manufacture products compatible with each other and this will simply reduce the option for
customers (Zhou, & Chao, 2011). For example, if LG says that their microwave will only
connect with Nest and Keen products and then LG users are restricted to buy Samsung products.
3.4 Privacy Issues
As so much data is getting generated and shared among devices, there is a lack of
transparency who is the owner of data generated and as a result, this data can be sold by vendors
to the marketing companies or companies like Google can use their data as they are into business
of target marketing and showing advertisements to the people (Want, Schilit, & Jenson, 2015). It
would be correct to say that privacy issues are the most important issue that can exist in IOT
infrastructure.
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
3.5 Potential Solutions
There are no easy solutions to the above issues. However, with technological advancements
there are certain solutions. One of the solutions is to have an extra layer of user authentication.
At the end of user, he or she must have an updated profile and the second layer of security can be
added with the help of one time password on mobile (Drucker, 2015). Another solution is to keep
all the applications updated and at the same time, user should have frequent scanning of the
application. The antivirus system should be updated so that the latest viruses can be captured. It
is also suggested that users should create different profiles for different family members based on
the need. For example, the Smart TV can have different profiles for parents and kids. It is also
important that the users must also install the security patches for all the IOT devices. The
security patches would ensure that the IOT infrastructure is not vulnerable to the external threats.
The bottom line is that users must have a continuous eye on the safety of IOT devices (Gubbi &
Buyya, 2013).
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
4. Diagram of the dwelling layout
The diagrammatic representation of my dwelling can be shown as:
5 Conclusion
The above paper discusses the Internet of Things infrastructure in my dwelling. With the
above discussion, it can be said that there are various benefits of Internet of Things. However,
organizations and individuals must also think about the strategies to overcome the challenges.
The challenges and the associated threat can be highlighted in a table as:
Challenges/ Issues Impact of Threat
Security High
Connectivity Medium (considering good availability of high speed Internet)
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
Compatibility Medium
Privacy High
With the above discussion it can be said that the multiple solutions should be used to
overcome the issues. For example, use of antivirus system along with firewall would help the
user to safeguard the IOT infrastructure.
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References
Babar, S., Mahalle, P., Stango, A., Prasad, N., & Prasad, R. (2010). Proposed security model and
threat taxonomy for the Internet of Things (IoT). Recent Trends in Network Security and
Applications, 420-429.
Da Xu, L., He, W., & Li, S. (2014). Internet of things in industries: A survey. IEEE Transactions
on industrial informatics, 10(4), 2233-2243.
Drucker, P. F. (2015). Internet of Things. European Commission Information Society and Media.
Ganti, R. K., Ye, F., & Lei, H. (2011). Mobile crowdsensing: current state and future
challenges. IEEE Communications Magazine, 49(11).
Gubbi, J., Buyya, R., Marusic, S., & Palaniswami, M. (2013). Internet of Things (IoT): A vision,
architectural elements, and future directions. Future generation computer systems, 29(7),
1645-1660.
Heer, T., Garcia-Morchon, O., Hummen, R., Keoh, S. L., Kumar, S. S., & Wehrle, K. (2011).
Security Challenges in the IP-based Internet of Things. Wireless Personal
Communications, 61(3), 527-542.
Roman, R., Zhou, J., & Lopez, J. (2013). On the features and challenges of security and privacy
in distributed internet of things. Computer Networks, 57(10), 2266-2279.
Stankovic, J. A. (2014). Research directions for the internet of things. IEEE Internet of Things
Journal, 1(1), 3-9.
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Swan, M. (2012). Sensor mania! the internet of things, wearable computing, objective metrics,
and the quantified self 2.0. Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks, 1(3), 217-253.
Want, R., Schilit, B. N., & Jenson, S. (2015). Enabling the internet of things. Computer, 48(1),
28-35.
Zhou, L., & Chao, H. C. (2011). Multimedia traffic security architecture for the internet of
things. IEEE Network, 25(3).
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
Appendix
IOT Device Function Manufacturer Cost
Amazon
Echo
This can not only play music from wide
range of sources but can book a cab and
order a pizza also.
Amazon Starting from 100
USD, it has variants
for 200, 300 USD as
well.
Thermostat Heating Honeywell 500 USD
Water
Sprinkler
They can be used to water parts suing
mobile phones from any location and also
use intelligence to save water bills
Rachio 200 USD – 500
USD based on
number of
functionalities
Microwave Heating Food Samsung 200 USD
Lock
system
These systems will provide keyless door
locks that can be operated by mobile
phone Apps.
August
systems
350 dollars
Lighting
system
These lights will save power and capable
of turning of/off by themselves based on
the occupants moving out or in.
Philips Numerous products
in this category
from 50 USD
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IS IOT A FUTURE: APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
Smart TV Watching Television LG 800 USD
Coffee
machine
Coffee machine that can be controlled by
your mobile phone and can notify in case
of shortage of any ingredient
Nespresso
Systems
300 US dollars
14