Security and Privacy Challenges: Internet of Things

Background/Objectives: This survey reports on the current research on the Internet of Things by examining the related literature, identifying current trends, challenges that threaten IoT and future directions. Findings: Most of the people use the Internet every day but little knows how it really works. Now a Days internet of things (IoT) has been area of research as many heterogeneous devices are connected through internet. This will capacitate the devices with new abilities. In such a case, the confidentiality of data plays an important role. It includes data validation and confidentiality, secrecy and reliability amongst various users and the constraints of security and privacy policies. Traditional security methods cannot be directly applied to IoT technologies due to the different standards and communication stacks involved. Moreover, the amount of more interconnected devices will lead to less adaptability; so a more modifiable structure is needed to deal with security threats in a drastically dynamic environment. Application/Improvements: The concept of loT brings a new challenge regarding privacy, security, confidentiality, reliability and trust. The major issues are lot of devices are not protected under mechanisms such as firewalls and are not following the specific standards. They are easily attacked by wireless channels. Such devices can be stolen and can be analysed by attackers to reveal their key material. Combining data from different sources is the other major issue since there is no guarantee of security between data providers and data consumers from very beginning. Secure exchange platform is required between IoT devices and consumers of their information.