Threat-Based Security Analysis for the Internet of Things

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm focusing on the inter-connection of things or devices to each other and to the users. This technology is anticipated to become an integral milestone in the development of smart homes and smart cities. For any technology to be successful and achieve widespread use, it needs to gain the trust of users by providing adequate security and privacy assurance. Despite the growing interest of the research community in IoT, and the emergence of several surveys and papers addressing its architecture and its elements, we are still lacking a thorough analysis of the security and privacy properties that are required for a system where the constituent devices vary in their capabilities. In this paper we provide a threat model based on use-cases of IoT, which can be used to determine where efforts should be invested in order to secure these systems. We conclude by recommending measures that will help in providing security and assuring privacy when using IoT.