On the design of security mechanisms for the Internet of Things

Abstract

With the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), there is a need for secure and scalable architectures for the IoT. This paper is a step towards this goal. We propose a set of security requirements for IoT systems and describe a novel security mechanism designed to those requirements. We divide the security threats and attacks on the IoT into five distinct categories, i.e. communications, device/services, users, mobility and integration of resources and employ them in developing the proposed requirements and mechanism. We argue that, by adopting such an approach in an IoT system, security can be achieved in a practical and comprehensive manner.