Security Challenges of the Internet of Things

Abstract

The ‘Internet of Things’ is the buzz phrase that describes a new era of computation. Briefly, the Internet of Things can be defined as the interaction of smart objects that are connected to the Internet.

These objects can sense, share and process information, upload them in the cloud, and make them available to the user via a large amount of different applications. Despite all of these promising innovations, the Internet of Things, as every other technology, faces multiple security challenges.

The objective of this paper is to give an overview of the Internet of Things, and to elaborate on all currently know security challenges the Internet of Things, as of today, is facing. All findings are based on the literature available for the key components of the Internet of Things.

This paper provides detailed insight into the key components of the Internet of Things, ranging from Radio Frequency Identification, over Near-Field Communication, to Wireless Sensor Networks.

Furthermore, the paper provides insight into the different fields of application these components are used by, and elaborates the security risks each component faces. All currently known countermeasures, that can protect the components of the Internet of Things from security attacks, and provide a secure version of the Internet of Things, are discussed in this work.

This paper evaluates the countermeasures available to protect each component of the Internet of Things from security risks. Information about security challenges still to be overcome, and countermeasures, not sufficient to protect the Internet of Things from attacks, are provided in the concluding chapter. Based on the current literature, this paper provides an answer to the question whether the Internet of Things as of today can already be considered secure.