Malware threat analysis techniques and approaches for IoT applications: a review

Abstract

Internet of things (IoT) is a concept that has been widely used to improve business efficiency and customer’s experience. It involves resource constrained devices connecting to each other with a capability of sending data, and some with receiving data at the same time. The IoT environment enhances user experience by giving room to a large number of smart devices to connect and share information. However, with the sophistication of technology has resulted in IoT applications facing with malware threat. Therefore, it becomes highly imperative to give an understanding of existing state-of-the-art techniques developed to address malware threat in IoT applications. In this paper, we studied extensively the adoption of static, dynamic and hybrid malware analyses in proffering solution to the security problems plaguing different IoT applications. The success of the reviewed analysis techniques were observed through case studies from smart homes, smart factories, smart gadgets and IoT application protocols. This study gives a better understanding of the holistic approaches to malware threats in IoT applications and the way forward for strengthening the protection defense in IoT applications.