Security of Internet of Things (IoT) Application Services

Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging topic of technology, society, engineering circles and economic significance. IoT brings significant impact to our life and it involves in many industries, including transportation, logistics management, medical system, environmental monitoring and precision agriculture, and intelligent environment in home and office. At the same time, however, IoT raises the significant security issues which are different in the traditional network.

SAFECHAIN: Securing Trigger-Action Programming from Attack Chains

Imaging the smart homes in the near future, we can see several IoT device locating in our home. All these devices are connected to the Internet so that users can monitor and control them remotely. Furthermore, users can add custom rules to automate them. To make our home safer, we will probably install a RFID reader, a smart lock, a light bulb and a surveillance camera in the front door outside the house. After the RFID reader confirms the identity of users, the light bulb and surveillance camera should be turned on to record who’s entering and the smart lock could be unlocked after that. On the other hand, if the RFID reader cannot detect a valid card for a while, the smart lock should be locked as soon as possible. After the door is locked, the light bulb and surveillance camera could be switched off later without leaving a room for the bad guys. However, not all IoT devices are secure and safe in the world. Several devices are easy to hack, such as RFID readers and light bulbs. Furthermore, once the adversary gets full control of these two devices, he can break in stealthily without being recorded even though he has no direct control of smart lock and surveillance camera. Hence, we propose SAFECHAIN, a system detects indirect attack efficiently and suggests easy-to-follow fixes.

Fig 5. Proof-of-concept implementation. (a) A toy house. (b) Security Policies. (c) Check results. (d) Security alarms.

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