Abstract
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the Internet-like structure of billions of interconnected constrained devices, denoted as “smart objects”. Smart objects have limited capabilities, in terms of computational power and memory, and might be battery-powered devices, thus raising the need to adopt particularly energy efficient technologies. Among the most notable challenges that building interconnected smart objects brings about, there are standardization and interoperability. The use of IP has been foreseen as the standard for interoperability for smart objects. As billions of smart objects are expected to come to life and IPv4 addresses have eventually reached depletion, IPv6 has been identified as a candidate for smart-object communication. The deployment of the IoT raises many security issues coming from (i) the very nature of smart objects, e.g., the adoption of lightweight cryptographic algorithms, in terms of processing and memory requirements; and (ii) the use of standard protocols, e.g., the need to minimize the amount of data exchanged between nodes. This paper provides a detailed overview of the security challenges related to the deployment of smart objects. Security protocols at network, transport, and application layers are discussed, together with lightweight cryptographic algorithms proposed to be used instead of conventional and demanding ones, in terms of computational resources. Security aspects, such as key distribution and security bootstrapping, and application scenarios, such as secure data aggregation and service authorization, are also discussed.
Highlights
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging concept that refers to billions of interconnected information sources, denoted as “smart objects”, typically equipped with sensors or actuators, a tiny microprocessor, a communication interface, and a power source
Security in emerging IoT scenarios was analyzed from a multi-layer perspective
Internet protocols, including security protocols, has been discussed. Another important aspect related to security is the definition and implementation of cryptographic algorithms, tailored for constrained devices
Summary
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging concept that refers to billions of interconnected (non-human) information sources, denoted as “smart objects”, typically equipped with sensors or actuators, a tiny microprocessor, a communication interface, and a power source. While it is possible to cope with physical nature-related issues only by adopting safe supplying and installation measures, such as avoiding untrusted manufacturers and installers, and by trying to protect smart objects in safe places, all other security threats can be tackled by adopting means, such as secure communication protocols and cryptographic algorithms, in order to enforce the following basic security properties:. In other constrained networked scenarios, smart objects may require additional protocols and some protocol adaptations in order to optimize Internet communications and lower memory, computational, and power requirements. A final remark should be made about the heterogeneous nature of smart objects, whose characteristics can vary significantly with relevant differences with respect to those of conventional hosts This means that the adoption of a suite of security protocols and cryptographic algorithms is a need and a challenge at the same time.
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