And this has raised security and privacy concerns

Submitted by:
Suma Shambulinga Ravi
(12770133)
Date: 07-07-2017

Table of contents

3.2. Security issues in IoT 5

3.3. IoT threatens user’s privacy 6

6. Conclusion 10

7. References 11

As with every other technology IoT also has its risks. A survey conducted by Gartner (2016) shows that cybersecurity, integration and managing business requirements were the three main challenges faced by the organizations that have already implemented IoT .The introduction of sensors and devices into our personal spaces such as homes, hospitals, cars and even on our body has posed challenges from security and privacy perspective.

The success of a technology depends on how the technology offers to secure the data and protect user privacy. With the current trend showing accelerated growth of IoT, we need to evaluate whether security and privacy concerns in IOT has an impact on its adoption by firms and individuals. This gives raise to our research questions

The scope of this literature review is limited to identifying the security and privacy issues related to Internet of Things and will evaluate whether these issues are having an impact on adoption of IoT by organizations. This report answers the research questions by compiling the key issues related to data security and user privacy of IoT and also identifies some of the solutions provided in the literature to overcome them.

A literature survey was conducted to gain insights into the security and privacy issues of Internet of Things. The papers for this literature review were obtained from databases such as SpringerLink, IEEE Xplore, Scopus and ACM Digital Library. The relevant papers were screened by reading the title, abstract and conclusion. The articles published between the year 2010 and 2017 were considered for this literature review. The quality of the articles was assessed based on the introduction, publication and research methodology.

The adoption of IoT in industries is gaining momentum as competitive pressure push the firms to innovate and transform themselves. IoT being a disruptive technology poses security challenges to adopting firms (Lee & Lee 2015). IoT devices are vulnerable to security threats due to global network of growing number of connected devices. Although IoT aims to improve the quality of human life and productivity of firms, it also provides more playground to hackers bringing in new vulnerabilities and threats to existing isolated P a g e 4 | 11

things (Lee & Lee 2015). Protection of users' privacy is another major concern to be addressed in IoT. Data such as user's location tags, movements, health indicators, purchasing preferences, voice are transmitted across devices, which if compromised poses huge threat to privacy of individuals or communities (Roman, Zhou & Lopez 2013).

The advancement of technologies such as RFID, WSN and NFC has made IoT a reality. These technologies are vulnerable to security threats such as user tracking, relay attack, Eavesdropping, Phishing attacks,

Protection of user privacy and data are major challenges in IOT to be addressed (Kumar & Patel 2014). Privacy is a fundamental human right, where individuals can safeguard their personal information being exposed to the external world. This is in contrast to the idea of IoT, where information is accessible at anytime from anywhere in the world. Ziegeldorf (2013) defines privacy in IoT as guarantee of creating awareness among the consumers of the privacy risks imposed by smart things and services, educating consumers about how to control the collection and processing of personal information by smart things around them and also inform them about how the information collected is being used.

IoT is an emerging concept comprising of growing number of technologies such as RFID, WSNs, mobile application platforms and hence comprehensive view of arising privacy issues in IoT is missing (Ziegeldorf 2013). Most concerning aspect of IoT is that consumers are unaware of what data is collected, how it is collected and how it is being used. The privacy threats associated with evolving IoT technologies are automatic identification and tracking people through identification tags in clothes and devices and data collected through sensors can create uncontrollable environments leading to potential disasters. Smart phones, smart health monitoring devices, smart cars are gathering and transmitting enormous amount of user information such as geo-location and activities that cause potential privacy risks.

Case Study 1:Security vulnerabilities in the Smart Plug System

Smart plugs, one of the fast emerging IoT gadgets, are increasingly expanding prevalence in home automation, with which users can remotely screen and control their homes. However, the security concerns raise as the smart plugs get popular. Compromised smart plugs would lead to both security and privacy breach of home users. If this happens in commercial setting the damage would be disastrous.

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3.5 Security and Privacy Solutions for IoT

The literature review of the articles provided a wealth of information about IoT and its applications in real world. The literature also throws light on the security and the privacy issues of the underlying core technologies of IoT. There is not much information available on how these issues are impacting the sustenance of IoT and its adoptability in various organizations. Survey by Gartner (2016) showed that 43% of the industries are planning to implement IoT by 2016. However, the industries that have already implemented IoT have stated that cybersecurity is a major challenge in IoT. There is also a lack of research in demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of IoT, which raises a question on the success rate of adoption of IoT by enterprises.

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The literature review of the two case studies reported, depicts how easy it is to exploit the security vulnerabilities of IoT. Home is no more a private space due to IoT encroaching into our daily lives and thereby exposing sensitive information such as everyday activities. Healthcare is another critical domain where security compromise would cost lives. It was observed that there are no adequate industry reports and case study of IoT in various domain, which implies that IoT is not fully matured yet and there is a need for extensive research to unravel its potential security implications.

Finally, solutions to overcome various security and privacy concerns were proposed in the articles. The suggested solutions are not standardized and each industry needs a different approach and standards to be followed to establish security solutions. It has been noted that, there have been less emphasis on educating consumers of the best practices of IoT devices security to be followed to safeguard privacy. It is very much evident that due to lack of regulatory standards and legislation there are no clear guidelines setup on who can access data and how these data are sold to third parties to develop products and services.

To secure data and protect privacy, solutions need to be implemented from both technical and legal perspective. Privacy Enhancing Technologies and enhancements to existing security protocols will strengthen the IoT security. Adequate legal frameworks needs to be formulated to protect the user privacy.

Although IoT is increasingly becoming popular, its adoption by enterprises is at a much slower pace due to the security and privacy challenges surrounding this emerging technology. This literature review will assist enterprises in understanding the security and privacy issues afflicting IoT and the proposed solutions to overcome them.

Fink, G.A., Zarzhitsky, D.V., Carroll, T.E. & Farquhar, E.D. 2015, 'Security and privacy grand challenges for the Internet of Things', Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS), 2015 International Conference on, IEEE, pp. 27-34.

Gartner, 2017, Gartner Says 8.4 Billion Connected "Things" Will Be in Use in 2017, Up 31 Percent From 2016, press release, viewed 1 September 2017, <http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3598917>

Laeeq, K. & Shamsi, J.A. 2015, 'A Study of Security Issues, Vulnerabilities and Challenges in Internet of Things', Securing Cyber-Physical Systems, p. 221.

Lee, I. & Lee, K. 2015, 'The Internet of Things (IoT): Applications, investments, and challenges for enterprises', Business Horizons, vol. 58, no. 4,pp. 431-40.

Sedrati, A. & Mezrioui, A. 2017, 'Internet of Things challenges: A focus on security aspects', 2017 8th International Conference on Information and Communication Systems (ICICS), pp. 210-5.

Stout, W.M.S. & Urias, V.E. 2016, 'Challenges to securing the Internet of Things', 2016 IEEE International Carnahan Conference on Security Technology (ICCST), pp. 1-8.

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