An Application-Oriented Study of Security Threats and Countermeasures in Edge Computing–Assisted Internet of Things

Abstract

Edge computing has been introduced to support the real-time applications that require quick responses in the Internet of Things (IoT) network. The traditional cloud-based network management cannot serve the real-time applications due to the increased latency. In edge computing, several edge nodes will be deployed at the edge of the network. Thus, the applications will be able to get the resource support from the nearest location. Based on the execution strategy, the edge-based computation can be categorized into fog computing, mobile edge computing, and mobile cloud computing. Edge computing can be integrated to the wide range of IoT-enabled environments, which include smart city, health care, vehicular network, industrial environments, etc. Most of the applications in these smart environments handle sensitive data. The deployment of lightweight IoT devices and the edge nodes increased the security threats in the network. Since each IoT-enabled environment has been established for accomplishing different needs, the security-related challenges will vary in each environment. Application specific intelligent security algorithms need to be integrated within the IoT network for removing security threats. The resource-limited IoT devices cannot execute such complex algorithms. Thus, all such mechanisms will be integrated to the nodes deployed in the edge layer. This chapter discusses the security threats associated with different applications in edge-based IoT networks.