Security Evaluation of Cyber-Physical Systems in Society- Critical Internet of Things

In this paper, we present evaluation of security awareness of developers and users of cyber-physical systems. Our study includes interviews, workshops, surveys and one practical evaluation. We conducted 15 interviews and conducted survey with 55 respondents coming primarily from industry. Furthermore, we performed practical evaluation of current state of practice for a society-critical application, a commercial vehicle, and reconfirmed our findings discussing an attack vector for an off-line societycritical facility. More work is necessary to increase usage of security strategies, available methods, processes and standards. The security information, currently often insufficient, should be provided in the user manuals of products and services to protect system users. We confirmed it lately when we conducted an additional survey of users, with users feeling as left out in their quest for own security and privacy. Finally, hardware-related security questions begin to come up on the agenda, with a general increase of interest and awareness of hardware contribution to the overall cyber-physical security. At the end of this paper we discuss possible countermeasures for dealing with threats in infrastructures, highlighting the role of authorities in this quest

Experimental Study on Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) for Mobile Internet of Things

In the past decade, we have witnessed explosive growth in the number of low-power embedded and Internet-connected devices, reinforcing the new paradigm, Internet of Things (IoT). The low power wide area network (LPWAN), due to its long-range, low-power and low-cost communication capability, is actively considered by academia and industry as the future wireless communication standard for IoT. However, despite the increasing popularity of `mobile IoT', little is known about the suitability of LPWAN for those mobile IoT applications in which nodes have varying degrees of mobility. To fill this knowledge gap, in this paper, we conduct an experimental study to evaluate, analyze, and characterize LPWAN in both indoor and outdoor mobile environments. Our experimental results indicate that the performance of LPWAN is surprisingly susceptible to mobility, even to minor human mobility, and the effect of mobility significantly escalates as the distance to the gateway increases. These results call for development of new mobility-aware LPWAN protocols to support mobile IoT.Comment: To appear at 2017 IEEE 85th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC'17 Spring

The Importance of Sensors to the Internet of Things

The excitement and hype surrounding the emerging technology market known as the Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted a great deal of attention from industry, business leaders, and governments alike. According to Cisco estimates1, the IoT will create a $14 Trillion global opportunity, and Business Insider predict it will be the largest market for technology hardware ever 2. If these are correct, the impact on traditional business models through the adoption of new technology within industry, the service sector and governments will be transformational. At an individual and societal level, important areas such as health care and aging population will particularly benefit from IoT. The changes on tomorrow’s society can only be imagined but there is little doubt, whether individually, societally, economically, or industrially, these changes will be far reaching. However, the promise of future riches can fool the unwary into overlooking the jewels that already exist which are delivering benefit to the UK economy today; whose presence will be pivotal to the UK’s position in the IoT market of tomorrow. In the SILC white paper ‘The IoT Tree of Life’3, the 4 foundation roots from which the IoT will develop are: Low Power Processing, Miniature Sensors, Ubiquitous Wireless, and Power Efficiency. This briefing paper explores Sensor Systems, the ‘eyes and ears’ of the IoT, and elucidates how the existing UK strengths in this area can be leveraged to deliver competitive advantage to the UK economy in the emerging IoT market

Securing Real-Time Internet-of-Things

Modern embedded and cyber-physical systems are ubiquitous. A large number of critical cyber-physical systems have real-time requirements (e.g., avionics, automobiles, power grids, manufacturing systems, industrial control systems, etc.). Recent developments and new functionality requires real-time embedded devices to be connected to the Internet. This gives rise to the real-time Internet-of-things (RT-IoT) that promises a better user experience through stronger connectivity and efficient use of next-generation embedded devices. However RT- IoT are also increasingly becoming targets for cyber-attacks which is exacerbated by this increased connectivity. This paper gives an introduction to RT-IoT systems, an outlook of current approaches and possible research challenges towards secure RT- IoT frameworks