Modelling and analysing IoT systems

Abstract

The Internet of Things is deeply shaping our society and our lives. Smart devices automatically collect, aggregate and exchange data on our behalf and free us from the drudgery of doing it. These data are often crucial because critical decisions, such as controlling cyber-physical systems, are made depending on them or because they feed learning algorithms. Safety and security issues related to devices and to data can have a major impact on smart systems and can have serious consequences if they oversee essential services, such as delivering power, water, transport, and so on. For this reason, it is crucial to identify the most critical components in a network of devices and to evaluate how they are vulnerable to accidental or to intentional failures. We propose to use the process calculus IoT-LySa to model systems and to apply a Control Flow Analysis to statically predict the manipulation of data, as well as on which data the critical decisions depend, in particular those affecting actuations. By exploiting suitable metrics, we can use the results of the analysis so as to provide system administrators with estimates of the safety and security of their systems.