Security Challenges in IoT Platforms: Analysis and Countermeasures

This report analyzes the security challenges faced by IoT platforms, drawing on research by Orifama and Okoro (2020) and other scholars. It identifies vulnerabilities across the physical, network, processing, and application layers, including node tampering, DoS attacks, and software vulnerabilities. The report also discusses countermeasures such as using cryptographic hash algorithms and access control lists to mitigate these threats. It highlights the importance of securing end nodes and addressing issues like hard-coded passwords and insecure data transfer. The report provides a comprehensive overview of IoT security concerns and potential solutions, drawing on various scholarly sources to present a well-rounded perspective. The report also highlights the importance of securing end nodes and addressing issues like hard-coded passwords and insecure data transfer.

Running head: SECURITY CHALLENGES IN IOT PLATFORMS
Security Challenges in IoT Platforms
Name of the Student
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Author Note

1SECURITY CHALLENGES IN IOT PLATFORMS
Orifama, D.G. and Okoro, H., 2020. Security Challenges in IoT Platforms and Possible
Solutions. Computing, 8(1), pp.1-7.
Identification of the article
Published on 18th of February 2020 by science publishing group, this article
successfully covers up most of the common security challenges faced while using the IoT
platforms. The two scholars of this journal Orifama and Okoro (2020), has successfully
identified some of the solutions of the security challenges of the IoT platforms. The name of
the journal where this article is published is the Internet of things and Cloud Computing.
Secondary data was used by the scholars in this article
Summary of range, contents and argument of the article
The article begins with the definition of an IoT based device and helps in
understanding the use of the devices on our society. Both the three layers and the five layer
architecture of the IoT based devices are graphically represented in this article, the following
segment of this paper introduces the security challenges of IoT devices across the different
layers. The scholars of this article have also provided in-depth details of the countermeasures
which can be very much effective to address the threats coming from the security challenges.
Critical discussion of key issues
According to Orifama and Okoro (2020), node tempering and, physical damage and
sleep denial attack, Node jamming, injection of malicious codes are the security concerns of
the physical layer of the IoT architecture. The researchers stated that traffic analysis attacks,
sinkhole attack, DoS attack, and Sybil Attack are the network layer attacks. Whereas software
vulnerabilities and phishing attacks are common in the network layer of the IoT devices.
Based on the discussion of Toma et al. (2019), lack of hard-coded passwords, hardware

2SECURITY CHALLENGES IN IOT PLATFORMS
issues, unpatched operating systems and insecure transfer of data are the prime challenges
behind the security issues across the different layers of the IoT devices. Orifama and Okoro
(2020), stated that high-quality components must be securing the end nodes of the IoT
devices as it can help to prevent the data security attacks. The advantage of using
cryptographic hash algorithms was also discussed by the scholar of this paper as it can ensure
the integrity of the software. However, on the contrary, as elaborated by Afzal et al. (2016),
eavesdropping and data tempering must be eliminated to secure the IoT devices from the
security threats. On the other hand, as discussed by Puthal et al. (2019), the use of the access
control list can be very much useful to secure the IoT devices from the threats coming from
social engineers.
Evaluation of the overall contribution
The article very had successfully identified the security challenges related to each
layer of the IoT devices in terms of the physical layer attacks, network layer attacks,
processing layer attacks and application layer attacks. However, other scholars highlighted
that there are other reasons behind the security issues in IoT devices as well, such as the lack
of hardcoded passwords and hardware issues. The selected article also helped in identifying
the countermeasures to address the security challenges using cryptographic hash algorithms,
contradicting with this discussion, other scholars mentioned that use of access control list and
minimisation of data tempering could be useful to address the security challenges in IoT
platforms.

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Reference
Afzal, B., Umair, M., Shah, G.A. and Ahmed, E., 2019. Enabling IoT platforms for social IoT
applications: vision, feature mapping, and challenges. Future Generation Computer Systems,
92, pp.718-731.
Orifama, D.G. and Okoro, H., 2020. Security Challenges in IoT Platforms and Possible
Solutions. Computing, 8(1), pp.1-7.
Puthal, D., Mohanty, S.P., Bhavake, S.A., Morgan, G. and Ranjan, R., 2019. Fog computing
security challenges and future directions [energy and security]. IEEE Consumer Electronics
Magazine, 8(3), pp.92-96.
Toma, C., Alexandru, A., Popa, M. and Zamfiroiu, A., 2019. IoT solution for smart cities’
pollution monitoring and the security challenges. Sensors, 19(15), p.3401.