Role Of Cyber Security – The Need For Internet Of Things
Role Of Cyber Security – The Need For Internet Of Things
Need Of Cyber Security For Internet Of Things(IOT)
Cyber-attacks are not new to IoT, as they have become an important as well as significant part of our lives and societies. Therefore, it is becoming necessary to take cyber defence seriously for IoT. But before, proceeding to discuss the need of Cybersecurity for IoT(Internet of Things), let’s shift our focus first to discuss and understand the concept of IoT.
Concept of IoT (Internet of Things)
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical & digital machines that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
An IoT device is capable of communicating with other IoT devices and ICT systems. These devices communicate via different means including cellular (4G or LTE), WLAN, wireless or other technologies.
Classification of IoT devices depends on size, i.e., small or normal, mobility, i.e., fixed or not fixed, source of power, i.e., external or internal, whether they are connected intermittently or always-on, automated or non-automated, logical or physical objects, and lastly, whether they are IP-enabled objects or non-IP objects.
The characteristics of IoT devices are their ability to sense, the capability of limiting power or energy, connection to the physical world, intermittent connectivity and mobility. However, most of IoT devices are vulnerable to both external and internal attacks because of these characteristics.
Role Of Cyber Security – The Need For Internet Of Things
Need of Cybersecurity for IoT (Internet of Things)
The need of Cybersecurity is must in order to protect and secure IoT devices from these challenging issues mentioned below:
Data confidentiality – It represents a fundamental issue in IoT devices. The IoT device needs to be able to verify that the entity (person or other device) is authorized to access the service. Authorization helps in determining if the person or device is permitted to receive the service.
Integrity – To provide reliable services to IoT users, integrity is a mandatory security property in most cases. Different systems in IoT have various integrity requirements. For instance, a remote patient monitoring system will have high integrity checking against random errors due to information sensitivities. Loss or manipulation of data may occur due to communication, potentially causing loss of human lives.
Authentication – This issue is critical in IoT, because multiple users, objects or things and devices need to authenticate each other through trustable services. The solution of this problem is necessary for handling the identity of user, objects or things and devices in a secure manner using Cybersecurity domain.
Availability – A user of a device (or the device itself) must be capable of accessing services anytime, whenever needed. Different hardware and software components in IoT devices must be robust so as to provide services even in the presence of malicious entities or adverse situations. Various systems have different availability requirements. For instance, fire monitoring or healthcare monitoring systems would likely have higher availability requirements than roadside pollution sensors.
Accountability – When developing security techniques to be used in a secure network, accountability adds redundancy and responsibility of certain actions, duties and planning of the implementation of network security policies. Accountability itself cannot stop attacks but is helpful in ensuring the other security techniques are working properly. Core security issues like integrity and confidentiality may be useless if not subjected to accountability. Also, in case of a repudiation incident, an entity would be traced for its actions through an accountability process that could be useful for checking the inside story of what happened and who was actually responsible for the incident.
Auditing – A security audit is a systematic evaluation of the security of a device or service by measuring how well it conforms to a set of established criteria. Due to many bugs and vulnerabilities in most systems, security auditing plays an important role in determining any exploitable weaknesses that put the data at risk. In IoT, systems need for auditing depends on the application and its value.
Non-repudiation – The property of non-repudiation produces certain evidence in cases where the user or device cannot deny an action. Non-repudiation is not considered an important security property for most of IoT. It may be applicable in certain contexts, for instance, payment systems where users or providers cannot deny a payment action.
Privacy – It is an important issue in IoT devices and service on account of the ubiquitous character of the IoT environment. Entities are connected, and data is communicated and exchanged over the internet, rendering user privacy a sensitive subject in many research works. Privacy in data collection, as well as data sharing and management, and data security matters remain open research issues to be fulfilled.
Conclusion
In the end, we can conclude to say that, the exponential growth of the IoT has led to greater security and privacy risks. Many such risks are attributable to device vulnerabilities that arise from cybercrime by hackers and improper use of system resources.
The IoT needs to be built in such a way as to ensure easy and safe usage control. Consumers need confidence to fully embrace the IoT in order to enjoy its benefits and avoid security and privacy risks.