Securing the IoT

This literature review discusses the security issues related to Internet of Things (IoT) and their solutions. It explains the definition of IoT, its benefits, and the security issues such as lacking encryption of data, losing authentication of data, data plane attack, side channel attack, and hidden channel attack. The review also provides solutions to these issues.

Running head: SECURING THE IOT
Securing the IoT
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Abstract
The major aim of the literature review is to learn about Internet of things with the several
security issues of the technology. The efficiency as well as effectiveness of these systems will
be eventually improvised and then the respective human exertions would be significantly
reduced. The important capability of this particular technology of internet of things is to
transfer the data within the network. All of the devices could be promptly connected to any
cloud device when the data is being collected as well as managed perfectly. The Internet of
Things has successfully evolved to get the best convergence of the various technologies,
commodity sensors, embedded systems, and real time analytics and finally machine learning.
This wireless sensor network as well as the automation system altogether comprises of the
technology of Internet of Things. This literature review has properly explained the various
issues of IoT with its relevant solutions.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................3
What is IoT?...........................................................................................................................3
Security Issues related to IoT.................................................................................................5
Solutions for IoT Issues.........................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
Reference List..........................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
IoT or Internet of Things can be defined as the typical networking of all types of
home appliances, electronics, sensors, software items, physical devices or vehicles (Vlacheas
et al. 2013). The proper connection of this Internet of Things is responsible for enabling the
various things for the proper connection or even exchanging the confidential data. There are
some of the major and most significant benefits of Internet of Things, which make this
technology extremely popular and well accepted by all (Yahmadi 2015). However, few issues
are also incorporated within this technology.
This literature review will be outlining a detailed discussion on the security of internet
of things. Various popular and significant issues are present that make the security of this
particular technology. The subsequent failure of any type of strong password is the
considered as the most important and significant issue for the security of the Internet of
things. The proper definition of IoT, including the several issues with the relevant solutions
of those security issues will be provided here.
Literature Review
What is IoT?
According to Zhao and Ge 2013, Internet of things or simply IoT can be defined as
the most vital systems for various inter linked digitalized machines, computing devices,
mechanical machines as well as objects or many others that consist of the main ability to get
the UID or unique identifier. Another important characteristic of this technology is that no
proper interaction is present between the human and computer systems (Singh, Tripathi and
Jara 2014). This type of interaction is not needed within the technology. The proper evolution
of the technology of IoT has taken place from machines to machines or M2M
communications, in which these machines are being connected with each other by the help of

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a typical network that does not have any human interaction. This Internet of Things
eventually takes up the significant communication of machine to machines to another
important level and even the sensor networks for the several smart devices that are being
linked with the applications, people and even the systems for properly collect or share the
data. As per Perera et al. 2014, this communication of the M2M or machines to machine has
the core responsibility for providing the significant connection that could be easily enabling
the technology of IoT.
There are various important and significant advantages of the technology of IoT
within any specific business are given below:
i) Monitoring Business Operations: The most important advantage of the technology
of IoT is that this technology can eventually monitor the several business operations within
any particular company (Dastjerdi and Buyya 2016). For the presence of this benefit, the
issues are easily observed as well as mitigated.
ii) Improvises the Experience of the Customer: The next significant advantage of the
technology of IoT is that it helps in the proper improvisation of the various customers’
experiences.
iii) Enhancing Productivity of the Employees: Aazam et al. 2014 state that another
specific and vital benefit of the IoT technology is that it helps in properly enhancing the
complete productivity of the employees within any particular organization.
iv) Makes Business Decisions even Better: The fourth benefit of the technology of
internet of things is that it helps to make the business decisions even better (Vermesan and
Friess 2014). This is mainly because the any type of human interaction is completely avoided
in the procedure and thus the several goals or objectives of a company are properly achieved.

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v) Saves both Money and Time: The technology of Internet of things is also much
effective in case of saving money or time. Hence, the major resources of the organization are
eventually saved by this specific technology (Raza, Wallgrenand Voigt 2013).
vi) Integration of Business Models: The next vital benefit of the technology of
internet of things is that it helps in proper integration of each and every business model.
According to Computing 2017, several business models are present within a company and for
properly managing those business models, the integration is highly important.
Security Issues related to IoT
Palattella et al. 2016, state that although, the above mentioned factors demonstrate
that the technology of Internet of Things comprises of numerous important benefits, it do
comprise of few nefarious issues related to security. This often becomes a major issue for the
organization regarding the security. The most important security issues of the IoT technology
are as follows:
i) Lacking of Encryption of Data: The first and the foremost issue that is extremely
common for this technology of Internet of Things security is subsequently lacking the
encryption of any type of confidential data (Tsai et al. 2014). This technique of encryption
enables the several users in keeping their sensitive data secured as well as protected. This
particular technique makes the data hidden by converting it to an encrypted one. Thus, data
retrieval and data processing must be saved perfectly. The technique of encryption
significantly develops a data shield and hence protecting the data from all types of
unauthenticated accesses (Granjal, Monteiro and Silva 2015). In spite of the fact that IoT has
several advantages, the typical facility of data encryption is not present here. With this
security issue, the data integrity and confidentiality are being lost.

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ii) Losing Authentication of Data: According to Madakam, Ramaswamy and Tripathi
2015, the authentication of data can be defined as the specific process that helps to provide
only appropriate as well as authenticated information to its users. The authenticated
information is completely appropriate and correct and hence unauthenticated access is almost
absent here. The technology of IoT, although is the best as well as an important technology,
still cannot provide authorized and authenticated information (Keoh, Kumar and Tschofenig
2014). False data is often provided in this particular technology and hence it becomes easier
for the hackers in accessing as well as modifying that data.
iii) Data Plane Attack: As per Karagiannis et al. 2015, the next security problem of
the technology of IoT is the attack of data plane. There are distinct two portions within the
Internet of Things that are data plane and control plane. This data plane attack occurs within
the specific data plane routers. The major issue starts when these packets get forwarded.
There are various vulnerabilities of software for the processing of devices. These
vulnerabilities are important and hence these are responsible for exploiting the data plane of
IoT (Raza, Wallgren and Voigt 2013). This type of exploitation is majorly done within the
software of packet processing for the core purpose of launching the types of nefarious denial
of service attack in the infrastructure of network.
iv) Side Channel Attack: Another important and significant dangerous or nefarious
attack, present within the Internet of Things technology is the side channel attack. All these
types of side channel attack occur, only when there few issues related to authentication as
well as encryption is being present. Furthermore, all of these attacks also focus less on the
information or data and even on the procedure that how that data is being processed
(Dastjerdi and Buyya 2016). Whenever any attacker is accessing sensitive data like timing
information, electromagnetic leaks and power consumption, that particular attacker utilize
this confidential information for the side channel attack.

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v) Hidden Channel Attack: As per Vermesan and Friess 2014, the next important and
vulnerable attack of the Internet of Things technology is the attack of hidden channels. The
various software bugs and even the cryptanalysis of the specific systems altogether work as
one single system and next the significant internal operations of that system are being
exploited easily. An extremely high technological knowledge is needed for this type of
exploitation and thus the increase of the advanced or highly developed Web 2.0 application
or SaaS model (Singh, Tripathi and Jara 2014). Furthermore, all of these attacks are even
very common, whenever the complete transmissions get encrypted in the web server or web
browsers.
The above mentioned security issues are extremely significant and dangerous for any
user and hence the vulnerabilities are increased eventually. These types of vulnerabilities or
security issues are very common for the users of IoT.
Solutions for IoT Issues
Although, these types of security related issues are common in the technology of
Internet of Things, there are some of the most relevant or appropriate solutions for all these
problems (Vlacheas et al. 2013). The most relevant and significant solutions for the above
mentioned issues are as follows:
i) Solution to Lacking of Encryption of Data: This specific security problem is
highly vulnerable for the various devices of the Internet of Things. The users are also affected
in this scenario. According to Zhao and Ge 2013, to address the particular problem related to
the lacking of encryption to the data, the most effective and effective method is use the
protocol of Secure Sockets Layer or SSL, when the data remains on the Internet. Hence, the
various web sites, which are subsequently using this certification of Secure Sockets Layer to
properly encrypt as well as protect the confidential data of the users is being considered as

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one of the most secured websites. Furthermore, the respective wireless protocol side is even
needed for getting it protected and secured (Raza, Wallgren and Voigt 2013). Hence, the
sensitivity and confidentiality of the information like GPS is required for being accessible or
available for these users. Thus, the most significant solution to the lacking of the encryption
of data is by utilizing the wireless protocols with an inbuilt encryption technology.
ii) Solution to Losing Authentication of Data: The next important security issue of
Internet of Things technology is the losing of data authenticity (Madakam, Ramaswamy and
Tripathi 2015). This type of issue should be resolved as soon as possible, so that the user does
not get an unauthenticated data. This typical security problem could be easily solved by
perfectly implementing sensors within the IoT smart devices. Although, this confidential data
gets encrypted, it is directly transferred by simple authentication of the data sources and
forged or false data are easily avoided in this case and appropriate data is promptly provided
to these users (Keoh, Kumar and Tschofenig 2014). These sensors are extremely expensive;
however they provide perfect data to its clients.
iii) Solution to Data Plane Attack: According to Karagiannis et al. 2015, the attacks
of data plane are very common for the devices of Internet of Things. All of these attacks can
be easily solved by a perfect combination of cloud computing as well as internet of things
technology. With the proper utilization of the cloud computing, the various packets of the
confidential data plane eventually go through current router and hence all the attacks could be
ceased easily.
iv) Solution to Side Channel Attack: This side channel attack is the most vulnerable
and important for the security purposes. Hence, it becomes very common for the devices of
IoT. The wireless networking is thus used for stopping such attacks (Granjal, Monteiro and
Silva 2015). The SDN or the software defined networking is another important method for

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encompassing the various issues related to IoT security and hence this virtualized servers or
the infrastructures of storage are protected eventually. Thus, data protection is easily done
here.
v) Solution to Hidden Channel Attack: This type of security attack can be promptly
stopped by taking the help of the cipher algorithm of encryption. The plain text gets encoded
to a cipher text and hence helps to maintain the confidentiality of the data (Yahmadi 2015). A
secret key is present for deciphering the hidden data and hence all the issues are resolved.
Conclusion
Therefore, from this literature review, conclusion could be drawn that the technology
of IoT is considered as the most significant and popular growth or advancement within the
technological world. There are several significant applications of the IoT technology. These
applications are then sub divided in three distinct categories that are enterprises, consumers
and finally infrastructure spaces. This typical activity is responsible for creating the few
opportunities to directly integrate as well as collaborate the physical world with the
computerized system. For the massive involvement of the technology, some of the most
significant security issues are present, which make the technology much vulnerable. Proper
solutions should be used for mitigating such risks, so that the threats are well avoided. This
literature review properly outlined a brief discussion on the security of IoT. Various risks are
identified in the literature review with their relevant solutions.

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Reference List
Aazam, M., Khan, I., Alsaffar, A.A. and Huh, E.N., 2014, January. Cloud of Things:
Integrating Internet of Things and cloud computing and the issues involved. In Applied
Sciences and Technology (IBCAST), 2014 11th International Bhurban Conference on (pp.
414-419). IEEE.
Computing, C., 2017. Internet of Things. Intranet of Things and Industrial Internet.
Dastjerdi, A.V. and Buyya, R., 2016. Fog computing: Helping the Internet of Things realize
its potential. Computer, 49(8), pp.112-116.
Granjal, J., Monteiro, E. and Silva, J.S., 2015. Security for the internet of things: a survey of
existing protocols and open research issues. IEEE Communications Surveys &
Tutorials, 17(3), pp.1294-1312.
Karagiannis, V., Chatzimisios, P., Vazquez-Gallego, F. and Alonso-Zarate, J., 2015. A
survey on application layer protocols for the internet of things. Transaction on IoT and Cloud
Computing, 3(1), pp.11-17.
Keoh, S.L., Kumar, S.S. and Tschofenig, H., 2014. Securing the internet of things: A
standardization perspective. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 1(3), pp.265-275.
Madakam, S., Ramaswamy, R. and Tripathi, S., 2015. Internet of Things (IoT): A literature
review. Journal of Computer and Communications, 3(05), p.164.
Palattella, M.R., Dohler, M., Grieco, A., Rizzo, G., Torsner, J., Engel, T. and Ladid, L., 2016.
Internet of things in the 5G era: Enablers, architecture, and business models. IEEE Journal on
Selected Areas in Communications, 34(3), pp.510-527.

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Perera, C., Liu, C.H., Jayawardena, S. and Chen, M., 2014. A survey on internet of things
from industrial market perspective. IEEE Access, 2, pp.1660-1679.
Raza, S., Wallgren, L. and Voigt, T., 2013. SVELTE: Real-time intrusion detection in the
Internet of Things. Ad hoc networks, 11(8), pp.2661-2674.
Singh, D., Tripathi, G. and Jara, A.J., 2014, March. A survey of Internet-of-Things: Future
vision, architecture, challenges and services. In Internet of things (WF-IoT), 2014 IEEE world
forum on (pp. 287-292). IEEE.
Tsai, C.W., Lai, C.F., Chiang, M.C. and Yang, L.T., 2014. Data mining for Internet of
Things: A survey. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, 16(1), pp.77-97.
Vermesan, O. and Friess, P. eds., 2014. Internet of things-from research and innovation to
market deployment (Vol. 29). Aalborg: River publishers.
Vlacheas, P., Giaffreda, R., Stavroulaki, V., Kelaidonis, D., Foteinos, V., Poulios, G.,
Demestichas, P., Somov, A., Biswas, A.R. and Moessner, K., 2013. Enabling smart cities
through a cognitive management framework for the internet of things. IEEE communications
magazine, 51(6), pp.102-111.
Yahmadi, H., 2015. Internet of Things.
Zhao, K. and Ge, L., 2013, December. A survey on the internet of things security.
In Computational Intelligence and Security (CIS), 2013 9th International Conference on (pp.
663-667). IEEE.