The Internet of Things: a security point of view

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth overview of the security requirements and challenges for Internet of Things (IoT) and discuss security solutions for various enabling technologies and implications to various applications.

Design/methodology/approach

Security requirements and solutions are analysed based on a four-layer framework of IoT on sensing layer, network layer, service layer, and application layer. The cross-layer threats are analysed followed by the security discussion for the enabling technologies including identification and tracking technologies, WSN and RFID, communication, networks, and service management.

Findings

IoT calls for new security infrastructure based on the new technical standards. As a consequence, new security design for IoT shall pay attention to these new standards. Security at both the physical devices and service-applications is critical to the operation of IoT, which is indispensable for the success of IoT. Open problems remain in a number of areas, such as security and privacy protection, network protocols, standardization, identity management, trusted architecture, etc.

Practical implications

The implications to various applications including supervisory control and data acquisition, enterprise systems, social IoT are discussed. The paper will serve as a starting point for future IoT security design and management. The security strategies for IoT should be carefully designed by managing the tradeoffs among security, privacy, and utility to provide security in multi-layer architecture of IoT.

Originality/value

The paper synthesizes the current security requirements for IoT and provides a clear framework of security infrastructure based on four layers. Accordingly, the security requirements and potential threats in the four-layer architecture are provided in terms of general devices security, communication security, network security, and application security.

Citation

Li, S., Tryfonas, T. and Li, H. (2016), "The Internet of Things: a security point of view", Internet Research, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 337-359. https://doi.org/10.1108/IntR-07-2014-0173