A systematic review of crime facilitated by the consumer Internet of Things

The nature of crime is changing — estimates suggest that at least half of all crime is now committed online. Once everyday objects (e.g. televisions, baby monitors, door locks) that are now internet connected, collectively referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT), have the potential to transform society, but this increase in connectivity may generate new crime opportunities. Here, we conducted a systematic review to inform understanding of these risks. We identify a number of high-level mechanisms through which offenders may exploit the consumer IoT including profiling, physical access control and the control of device audio/visual outputs. The types of crimes identified that could be facilitated by the IoT were wide ranging and included burglary, stalking, and sex crimes through to state level crimes including political subjugation. Our review suggests that the IoT presents substantial new opportunities for offending and intervention is needed now to prevent an IoT crime harvest

An Analysis of Malicious Threat Agents for the Smart Connected Home

Smart connected home systems aim to enhance the comfort, convenience, security, entertainment, and health of the householders and their guests. Despite their advantages, their interconnected characteristics make smart home devices and services prone to various cybersecurity and privacy threats. In this paper, we analyze six classes of malicious threat agents for smart connected homes. We also identify four different motives and three distinct capability levels that can be used to group the different intruders. Based on this, we propose a new threat model that can be used for threat profiling. Both hypothetical and real-life examples of attacks are used throughout the paper. In reflecting on this work, we also observe motivations and agents that are not covered in standard agent taxonomies

Violência doméstica e tecnologia: análise de experiências e possíveis cenários em relação a smart products

Nos últimos anos, o aumento da popularidade e modernização da tecnologia tem dado oportunidade a perpetradores para o surgimento de novas formas de violência. Este abuso emergente, facilitado pela tecnologia, é uma forma insidiosa de violência praticada pelo parceiro íntimo que abrange uma série de comportamentos propícios online e, cada vez mais, através do uso indevido de smart products. No entanto, estatísticas locais e a nível nacional indicam que este é um problema grave na sociedade e, enquanto não existir consciencialização global deste problema, o mercado continuará a oferecer uma variedade de soluções na forma de dispositivos que estão muitas das vezes a facilitar o abuso e não a oferecer segurança. Diante deste cenário, o objetivo é identificar como os smart products podem viabilizar novas formas de perseguição e abuso. Para isso, a estruturação do documento compreendeu-se em cinco partes: a primeira consiste numa introdução ao problema estudado, num enquadramento global e a relevância deste estudo, contendo ainda a estruturação da pesquisa com definição das componentes específicas, desenvolvimento de hipóteses e metodologia. Na segunda parte, foi realizada uma revisão sistémica de artigos da literatura para identificar o quadro atual da violência e a sua associação com a tecnologia. Para complementar a pesquisa, na terceira parte foi incluída uma análise de benchmarking de smart products. Na quarta parte, para examinar as novas formas de violência, iniciou-se um plano de recolha e análise de dados por meio de questionário. Finalmente, na parte cinco desenvolveu-se cenários futuros, de forma a otimizar a parte anterior de natureza prática. Este estudo comprovou que, de facto, as próprias vítimas podem não ter noção clara dos limites, nos quais os comportamentos de controlo se tornam abusivos, reforçando a importância que precisa de ser dada a este problema.In recent years, the increasing popularity and modernization of technology has given perpetrators the opportunity for new forms of violence to emerge. This emerging abuse, facilitated by technology, is an insidious form of intimate partner violence that encompasses a range of enabling behaviors online and, increasingly, through the misuse of smart products. However, local and national statistics indicate that this is a serious problem in society and until there is global awareness of this problem, the market will continue to offer a variety of solutions in the form of devices that are often facilitating abuse rather than offering safety. Against this backdrop, the goal is to identify how smart products can enable new forms of stalking and abuse. To this end, the document was structured in five parts: the first consists of an introduction to the problem under study, an overall framework and the relevance of this study, and also contains the structuring of the research with the definition of the specific components, hypothesis development, and methodology. In the second part, a systemic review of literature articles was conducted to identify the current picture of violence and its association with technology. To complement the research, in the third part a benchmarking analysis of smart products was included. In part four, to examine the new forms of violence, a questionnaire-based data collection and analysis plan was initiated. Finally in part five future scenarios were developed in order to optimize the previous practical part. This study has proven that, in fact, the victims themselves may not have a clear sense of the limits at which controlling behaviors become abusive, reinforcing the importance that needs to be given to this problem