Biblio
Nowadays the adoption of IoT solutions is gaining high momentum in several fields, including energy, home and environment monitoring, transportation, and manufacturing. However, cybersecurity attacks to low-cost end-user devices can severely undermine the expected deployment of IoT solutions in a broad range of scenarios. To face these challenges, emerging software-based networking features can introduce new security enablers, providing further scalability and flexibility required to cope with massive IoT. In this paper, we present a novel framework aiming to exploit SDN/NFV-based security features and devise new efficient integration with existing IoT security approaches. The potential benefits of the proposed framework is validated in two case studies. Finally, a feasibility study is presented, accounting for potential interactions with open-source SDN/NFV projects and relevant standardization activities.
Internet-of-Things devices often collect and transmit sensitive information like camera footage, health monitoring data, or whether someone is home. These devices protect data in transit with end-to-end encryption, typically using TLS connections between devices and associated cloud services. But these TLS connections also prevent device owners from observing what their own devices are saying about them. Unlike in traditional Internet applications, where the end user controls one end of a connection (e.g., their web browser) and can observe its communication, Internet-of-Things vendors typically control the software in both the device and the cloud. As a result, owners have no way to audit the behavior of their own devices, leaving them little choice but to hope that these devices are transmitting only what they should. This paper presents TLS–Rotate and Release (TLS-RaR), a system that allows device owners (e.g., consumers, security researchers, and consumer watchdogs) to authorize devices, called auditors, to decrypt and verify recent TLS traffic without compromising future traffic. Unlike prior work, TLS-RaR requires no changes to TLS's wire format or cipher suites, and it allows the device's owner to conduct a surprise inspection of recent traffic, without prior notice to the device that its communications will be audited.
Successful deployment of Low power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) requires self-organising, self-configuring, security, and mobility support. However, these characteristics can be exploited to perform security attacks against the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPL). In this paper, we address the lack of strong identity and security mechanisms in RPL. We first demonstrate by simulation the impact of Sybil-Mobile attack, namely SybM, on RPL with respect to control overhead, packet delivery and energy consumption. Then, we introduce a new Intrusion Detection System (IDS) scheme for RPL, named Trust-based IDS (T-IDS). T-IDS is a distributed, cooperative and hierarchical trust-based IDS, which can detect novel intrusions by comparing network behavior deviations. In T-IDS, each node is considered as monitoring node and collaborates with his peers to detect intrusions and report them to a 6LoWPAN Border Router (6BR). In our solution, we introduced a new timer and minor extensions to RPL messages format to deal with mobility, identity and multicast issues. In addition, each node is equipped with a Trusted Platform Module co-processor to handle identification and off-load security related computation and storage.
We propose $μ$Leech, a new embedded trusted platform module for next generation power scavenging devices. Such power scavenging devices are already widely deployed. For instance, the Square point-of-sale reader uses the microphone/speaker interface of a smartphone for communications and as power supply. While such devices are used as trusted devices in security critical applications in the wild, they have not been properly evaluated yet. $μ$Leech can securely store keys and provide cryptographic services to any connected smart phone. Our design also facilitates physical security analysis by providing interfaces to facilitate acquisition of power traces and clock manipulation attacks. Thus $μ$Leech empowers security researchers to analyze leakage in next generation embedded and IoT devices and to evaluate countermeasures before deployment.
As the use of low-power and low resource embedded devices continues to increase dramatically with the introduction of new Internet of Things (IoT) devices, security techniques are necessary which are compatible with these devices. This research advances the knowledge in the area of cyber security for the IoT through the exploration of a moving target defense to apply for limiting the time attackers may conduct reconnaissance on embedded systems while considering the challenges presented from IoT devices such as resource and performance constraints. We introduce the design and optimizations for a Micro-Moving Target IPv6 Defense including a description of the modes of operation, needed protocols, and use of lightweight hash algorithms. We also detail the testing and validation possibilities including a Cooja simulation configuration, and describe the direction to further enhance and validate the security technique through large scale simulations and hardware testing followed by providing information on other future considerations.
In Sybil attacks, a physical adversary takes multiple fabricated or stolen identities to maliciously manipulate the network. These attacks are very harmful for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. In this paper we implemented and evaluated the performance of RPL (Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks) routing protocol under mobile sybil attacks, namely SybM, with respect to control overhead, packet delivery and energy consumption. In SybM attacks, Sybil nodes take the advantage of their mobility and the weakness of RPL to handle identity and mobility, to flood the network with fake control messages from different locations. To counter these type of attacks we propose a trust-based intrusion detection system based on RPL.
Under the Internet of Things (IoT), the coexistence proof of multiple RFID tagged objects becomes a very useful mechanism in many application areas such as health care, evidences in court, and stores. The yoking-proof scheme addresses this issue. However, all existing yoking-proof schemes require two or more rounds communication to generate the yoking-proof. In this paper, we investigate the design of one-round yoking-proof schemes. Our contributions are threefold: (1) to confirm the coexistence of the RFID tag pair, we propose a one-round offline yoking-proof scheme with privacy protection. (2) We define a privacy model of the yoking-proof scheme and enhance Moriyama's security model for the yoking-proof scheme. The security and the privacy of the proposed scheme are proved under our models. (3) We further extend the yoking-proof scheme for the coexistence of m RFID tags, where m\textbackslashtextgreater2. The extended scheme maintains one-round. In addition, the proposed technique has efficiency advantage, compared with previous work.
Many attacks target vulnerabilities of home IoT devices, such as bugs in outdated software and weak passwords. The home network is at a vantage point for deploying security appliances to deal with such IoT attacks. We propose a comprehensive home network defense, Pot2DPI, and use it to raise an attacker's uncertainty about devices and enable the home network to monitor traffic, detect anomalies, and filter malicious packets. The security offered by Pot2DPI comes from a synthesis of practical techniques: honeypot, deep packet inspection (DPI), and a realization of moving target defense (MTD) in port forwarding. In particular, Pot2DPI has a chain of honeypot and DPI that collects suspicious packet traces, acquires attack signatures, and installs filtering rules at a home router timely. Meanwhile, Pot2DPI shuffles the mapping of ports between the router and the devices connected to it, making a targeted attack difficult and defense more effective. Pot2DPI is our first step towards securing a smart home.
This paper introduces a multi-factors security key generation mechanism for self-organising Internet of Things (IoT) network and nodes. The mechanism enables users to generate unique set of security keys to enhance IoT security while meeting various business needs. The multi-factor security keys presents an additional security layer to existing security standards and practices currently being adopted by the IoT community. The proposed security key generation mechanism enables user to define and choose any physical and logical parameters he/she prefers, in generating a set of security keys to be encrypted and distributed to registered IoT nodes. IoT applications and services will only be activated after verifying that all security keys are present. Multiple levels of authorisation for different user groups can be easily created through the mix and match of the generated multi-factors security keys. A use case, covering indoor and outdoor field tests was conducted. The results of the tests showed that the mechanism is easily adaptable to meet diverse multivendor IoT devices and is scalable for various applications.
Security and privacy issues of the Internet of Things (IoT in short, hereafter) attracts the hot topic of researches through these years. As the relationship between user and server become more complicated than before, the existing security solutions might not provide exhaustive securities in IoT environment and novel solutions become new research challenges, e.g., the solutions based on symmetric cryptosystems are unsuited to handle with the occasion that decryption is only allowed in specific time range. In this paper, a new scalable one-time file encryption scheme combines reliable cryptographic techniques, which is named OTFEP, is proposed to satisfy specialized security requirements. One of OTFEP's key features is that it offers a mechanism to protect files in the database from arbitrary visiting from system manager or third-party auditors. OTFEP uses two different approaches to deal with relatively small file and stream file. Moreover, OTFEP supports good node scalability and secure key distribution mechanism. Based on its practical security and performance, OTFEP can be considered in specific IoT devices where one-time file encryption is necessary.
The paper presents an example Sensor-cloud architecture that integrates security as its native ingredient. It is based on the multi-layer client-server model with separation of physical and virtual instances of sensors, gateways, application servers and data storage. It proposes the application of virtualised sensor nodes as a prerequisite for increasing security, privacy, reliability and data protection. All main concerns in Sensor-Cloud security are addressed: from secure association, authentication and authorization to privacy and data integrity and protection. The main concept is that securing the virtual instances is easier to implement, manage and audit and the only bottleneck is the physical interaction between real sensor and its virtual reflection.
Cloud computing has established itself as an alternative IT infrastructure and service model. However, as with all logically centralized resource and service provisioning infrastructures, cloud does not handle well local issues involving a large number of networked elements (IoTs) and it is not responsive enough for many applications that require immediate attention of a local controller. Fog computing preserves many benefits of cloud computing and it is also in a good position to address these local and performance issues because its resources and specific services are virtualized and located at the edge of the customer premise. However, data security is a critical challenge in fog computing especially when fog nodes and their data move frequently in its environment. This paper addresses the data protection and the performance issues by 1) proposing a Region-Based Trust-Aware (RBTA) model for trust translation among fog nodes of regions, 2) introducing a Fog-based Privacy-aware Role Based Access Control (FPRBAC) for access control at fog nodes, and 3) developing a mobility management service to handle changes of users and fog devices' locations. The implementation results demonstrate the feasibility and the efficiency of our proposed framework.
The Internet of Things leads to the inter-connectivity of a wide range of devices. This heterogeneity of hardware and software poses significant challenges to security. Constrained IoT devices often do not have enough resources to carry the overhead of an intrusion protection system or complex security protocols. A typical initial step in network security is a network scan in order to find vulnerable nodes. In the context of IoT, the initiator of the scan can be particularly interested in finding constrained devices, assuming that they are easier targets. In IoT networks hosting devices of various types, performing a scan with a high discovery rate can be a challenging task, since low-power networks such as IEEE 802.15.4 are easily overloaded. In this paper, we propose an approach to increase the efficiency of network scans by combining them with active network measurements. The measurements allow the scanner to differentiate IoT nodes by the used network technology. We show that the knowledge gained from this differentiation can be used to control the scan strategy in order to reduce probe losses.
The Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) over Low Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN), which is a promising technology to promote the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), has been proposed to connect millions of IP-based sensing devices over the open Internet. To support the mobility of these resource constrained sensing nodes, the Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6) has been proposed as the standard. Although the standard has specified some issues of security and mobility in 6LoWPANs, the issues of supporting secure group handovers have not been addressed much by the current existing solutions. In this paper, to reduce the handover latency and signaling cost, an efficient and secure group mobility scheme is designed to support seamless handovers for a group of resource constrained 6LoWPAN devices. With the consideration of the devices holding limited energy capacities, only simple hash and symmetric encryption method is used. The security analysis and the performance evaluation results show that the proposed 6LoWPAN group handover scheme could not only enhance the security functionalities but also support fast authentication for handovers.
The majority of business activity of our integrated and connected world takes place in networks based on cloud computing infrastructure that cross national, geographic and jurisdictional boundaries. Such an efficient entity interconnection is made possible through an emerging networking paradigm, Software Defined Networking (SDN) that intends to vastly simplify policy enforcement and network reconfiguration in a dynamic manner. However, despite the obvious advantages this novel networking paradigm introduces, its increased attack surface compared to traditional networking deployments proved to be a thorny issue that creates skepticism when safety-critical applications are considered. Especially when SDN is used to support Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related networking elements, additional security concerns rise, due to the elevated vulnerability of such deployments to specific types of attacks and the necessity of inter-cloud communication any IoT application would require. The overall number of connected nodes makes the efficient monitoring of all entities a real challenge, that must be tackled to prevent system degradation and service outage. This position paper provides an overview of common security issues of SDN when linked to IoT clouds, describes the design principals of the recently introduced Blockchain paradigm and advocates the reasons that render Blockchain as a significant security factor for solutions where SDN and IoT are involved.
The majority of business activity of our integrated and connected world takes place in networks based on cloud computing infrastructure that cross national, geographic and jurisdictional boundaries. Such an efficient entity interconnection is made possible through an emerging networking paradigm, Software Defined Networking (SDN) that intends to vastly simplify policy enforcement and network reconfiguration in a dynamic manner. However, despite the obvious advantages this novel networking paradigm introduces, its increased attack surface compared to traditional networking deployments proved to be a thorny issue that creates skepticism when safety-critical applications are considered. Especially when SDN is used to support Internet-of-Things (IoT)-related networking elements, additional security concerns rise, due to the elevated vulnerability of such deployments to specific types of attacks and the necessity of inter-cloud communication any IoT application would require. The overall number of connected nodes makes the efficient monitoring of all entities a real challenge, that must be tackled to prevent system degradation and service outage. This position paper provides an overview of common security issues of SDN when linked to IoT clouds, describes the design principals of the recently introduced Blockchain paradigm and advocates the reasons that render Blockchain as a significant security factor for solutions where SDN and IoT are involved.
In the past the security of building automation solely depended on the security of the devices inside or tightly connected to the building. In the last years more devices evolved using some kind of cloud service as a back-end or providers supplying some kind of device to the user. Also, the number of building automation systems connected to the Internet for management, control, and data storage increases every year. These developments cause the appearance of new threats on building automation. As Internet of Thing (IoT) and building automation intertwine more and more these threats are also valid for IoT installations. The paper presents new attack vectors and new threats using the threat model of Meyer et al.[1].
Internet of Things (IoT) is characterized by heterogeneous devices that interact with each other on a collaborative basis to fulfill a common goal. In this scenario, some of the deployed devices are expected to be constrained in terms of memory usage, power consumption and processing resources. To address the specific properties and constraints of such networks, a complete stack of standardized protocols has been developed, among them the Routing Protocol for Low-Power and lossy networks (RPL). However, this protocol is exposed to a large variety of attacks from the inside of the network itself. To fill this gap, this paper focuses on the design and the integration of a novel Link reliable and Trust aware model into the RPL protocol. Our approach aims to ensure Trust among entities and to provide QoS guarantees during the construction and the maintenance of the network routing topology. Our model targets both node and link Trust and follows a multidimensional approach to enable an accurate Trust value computation for IoT entities. To prove the efficiency of our proposal, this last has been implemented and tested successfully within an IoT environment. Therefore, a set of experiments has been made to show the high accuracy level of our system.
As an extension of cloud computing, fog computing is proving itself more and more potentially useful nowadays. Fog computing is introduced to overcome the shortcomings of cloud computing paradigm in handling the massive amount of traffic caused by the enormous number of Internet of Things devices being increasingly connected to the Internet on daily basis. Despite its advantages, fog architecture introduces new security and privacy threats that need to be studied and solved as soon as possible. In this work, we explore two privacy issues posed by the fog computing architecture and we define privacy challenges according to them. The first challenge is related to the fog's design purposes of reducing the latency and improving the bandwidth, where the existing privacy-preserving methods violate these design purposed. The other challenge is related to the proximity of fog nodes to the end-users or IoT devices. We discuss the importance of addressing these challenges by putting them in the context of real-life scenarios. Finally, we propose a privacy-preserving fog computing paradigm that solves these challenges and we assess the security and efficiency of our solution.
This paper investigates the suitability of employing various measurable features derived from multiple wearable devices (Apple Watch), for the generation of unique authentication and encryption keys related to the user. This technique is termed as ICMetrics. The ICMetrics technology requires identifying the suitable features in an environment for key generation most useful for online services. This paper presents an evaluation of the feasibility of identifying a unique user based on desirable feature set and activity data collected over short and long term and explores how the number of samples being factored into the ICMetrics system affects uniqueness of the key.
The IoT (Internet of Things) is one of the primary reasons for the massive growth in the number of connected devices to the Internet, thus leading to an increased volume of traffic in the core network. Fog and edge computing are becoming a solution to handle IoT traffic by moving timesensitive processing to the edge of the network, while using the conventional cloud for historical analysis and long-term storage. Providing processing, storage, and network communication at the edge network are the aim of fog computing to reduce delay, network traffic, and decentralise computing. In this paper, we define a framework that realises fog computing that can be extended to install any service of choice. Our framework utilises fog nodes as an extension of the traditional switch to include processing, networking, and storage. The fog nodes act as local decision-making elements that interface with software-defined networking (SDN), to be able to push updates throughout the network. To test our framework, we develop an IP spoofing security application and ensure its correctness through multiple experiments.