IoT - Security and Privacy Perspective

Internet of Things (IoT) has gained a lot of traction recently. Gartner’s 2014 hype cycle places IoT at the peak of the hype cycle despite relatively few IoT products having been released into the market. Security and privacy concerns are frequently cited when considering the time-to-market for a given product. In this Knowledge Sharing article, Parameswaran Thangavel discusses IoT from a security and privacy perspective.

There are a number of concerns/challenges in adopting IoT. A few of them are:

• Power consumption of the device

• Available CPU

• Network Availability, Scalability, Manageability

• Security and Privacy

Of all these concerns, Security and Privacy is key. Successfully addressing the security and privacy concerns will drive adoption of IoT. Conversely, the impact of compromising security and privacy of IoT space can extend to areas beyond just financial loss.

This article is for those who know the basics of IoT, various components that form an IoT ecosystem, protocol stack involved in an IoT, deployment pattern, and security and privacy concerns. The article is divided into four sections.

• Section 1 discusses basics of IoT from its evolution, various components that constitute IoT, and the lifecycle of a device or thing in an IoT system.
• Section 2 discusses protocols (MQTT, CoAP, RPL, 6LoWPAN) that form an IoT stack.
• Section 3 discusses the challenges in an IoT ecosystem from a security and privacy perspective. Also covered are threat factors and possible mitigations for an IoT system.
• Section 4 examines current work on the various standards, a few initiatives, and adoption of IoT in India.

Parameswaran’s article concludes with an examination of IoT’s current state and next steps.

Read the full article.