The Internet of Things (IoT) aims at connecting a large number of communication and information systems. With the further development of pervasive computing, these systems can be integrated into everyday objects, such as household devices and tools. When complex systems are interconnected, it is complicated to keep track of how secure a system or connection is and to distinguish which devices are connected within the IoT and which devices are not. As to the security, the IoT will be faced with more severe challenges. There are the following reasons: 1) the IoT extends the ‘internet' through the traditional internet, mobile network and sensor network and so on, 2) every ‘thing' will be connected to this ‘internet' and 3) these ‘things' will communicate with each other. Therefore, the new security and privacy problems will arise out of which authentication and access control are the most vital security issues that need to be taken care of. Therefore, we should pay more attention to the issues for confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of data in the IoT.
Top1. Introduction
Day-by-day the Internet of Things is gaining success in the field of wireless telecommunications. (Atzori, Iera, & Morabito (2010)) Around two billion people are using internet for different purposes. This concept is based on the interaction of various “things” to minimize human effort and start a new technology. The effects of advancements in IoT can be seen in many fields such as e-health, e-traffic etc. The things are connected to the network with the help of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags, sensor nodes, addressing schemes, data storage mechanisms and visualization processes. This paradigm is slowly becoming the center of all the things or devices that involve human intervention. The interoperability of interconnected devices is the most highlighted issue in case of IoT.
The Internet of Things is a vast arena which is mostly unexplored where all the current technologies can play a role. (Zorzi, Gluhak, Lange, & Bassi (2010)) IoT can be the pillar of future internet and recent advances in reduction of energy consumption, miniaturization of devices and increase in computational power are bringing this concept closer to reality. Because of IoT, it is possible not only to actively interconnect things in physical world, but also to enable them to exchange and make use of their information. In the past decade, the applications of Internet of Things have been more advanced involving applications in healthcare, utilities, transport etc. Based on the use of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID), Wi-Fi and wireless sensor nodes, IoT has become the center of every activity connected to internet these days.
One of the most challenging topics (Mayer (2009)) in such an interconnected world of miniaturized devices and sensors are its security and privacy aspects i.e. users will be unwilling to adopt this new technology if the privacy of the shared information and data is not ensured as this technology will be invisibly integrated with their environment and life. Having every “thing” connected to a network and making these “things” interact with each other, new security and privacy issues such as: confidentiality, authenticity and integrity of data exchanged by “things”. Unauthorized access and tracking of devices should be prevented to make the Internet of Things more secure.
The main challenges (Mahalle, Anggorojati, Prasad, & Prasad (2013)) are to ensure access to data and services to authorized entities, mutual authentication, authorization, identity management and prevention from threats and attacks. Security and privacy are the key issues that determine the future of this web of things.
The rest of the chapter is structured as follows: Section 2 presents the background details, architecture as well as applications of IoT. Section 3 describes why Internet of Things is vulnerable to different security issues and attacks. Section 4 shows the different challenges faced. Section 5 shows the different risks that IoT possesses due to security vulnerabilities. Section 6 describes the central elements to address the security and privacy issues i.e. authentication and access control. The different threats and attacks are described in section 7 and the privacy of network of “things” is given in section 8. The features of IoT that needs to be taken care of are shown in section 9 and the related work done for addressing these security and privacy issues are presented in section 10 before concluding in section 11.
TopConverting the concept of IoT into reality is possible by the integration of certain technologies such as: Identification, sensing and communication technologies and other middleware technologies.