Cryptography for Privacy in a Resource-Constrained IoT: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is intelligent devices connected to a network, which enables collection, transmission, and processing of real-world data. IoT applications make extensive use of resource-constrained devices. These applications work with critical data that need confidentiality and privacy during transmission. In this resource-constrained scenario, lightweight cryptography is a tool to ensure confidentiality, privacy, and data integrity. The number of research papers on cryptography in a resource-constrained IoT has increased over three years. A systematic literature review (SLR) is a search for papers and answers on relevant questions for researchers in their area of interest. This study applies an SLR based on the Kitchenham and PRISMA guidelines to analyze the influence of cryptography on privacy in a resource-constrained IoT. The most relevant results show that the number of papers published on the topic in the years 2019-2021 has increased, that most of the papers found in the review were in IEEE Access, and that the most frequent words in the titles and abstracts were lightweight, IoT, encryption, and scheme. Moreover, most of the research was developed on the Asian continent. This study concludes that cryptography for privacy in a resource-constrained IoT is a developing area of research.