IoT Security, Privacy, Safety and Ethics

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents a revolution of the Internet which can connect nearly all environment devices over the Internet to share their data to create novel services and applications for improving our quality of life. Using cheap sensors, the IoT enables various devices and objects around us to be addressable, recognizable and locatable. Although the IoT brought infinite benefits, it creates several challenges, especially in security and privacy. Handling these issues and ensuring security and privacy for IoT products and services must be a fundamental priority. Users need to trust IoT devices and related services are secure. Moreover, the IoT safety must be considered to prevent the IoT system and its components from causing an unacceptable risk of injury or physical damage and at the same time considering social behaviour and ethical use of IoT technologies to enable effective security and safety. This chapter provides a discussion of IoT security, privacy, safety and ethics. It starts by providing an overview of the IoT system, its architecture and essential characteristics. This is followed by discussing IoT security challenges, requirements and best practices to protect IoT devices. The IoT privacy is also discussed by highlighting various IoT privacy threats and solutions to preserve the privacy of IoT devices. The IoT safety, ethics, the need for the ethical design and challenges encountered are also discussed. In the end, smart cities are introduced as a case study to investigate various security threats and suggested solutions to maintain a good security level in a smart city.