Bluetooth technology is a key component of wireless communications. It provides a low-energy and low-cost solution for short-range radio transmissions. Bluetooth, more specifically Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) has become the predominant technology for connecting IoT (Internet of Things). It can be found in cell phones, headsets, speakers, printers, keyboards, automobiles, children’s toys, and medical devices, as well as many other devices. The technology can also be found in automated smart homes, to provide monitors and controls for lights, thermostats, door locks, appliances, security systems, and cameras. Bluetooth offers convenience and ease of use, but it lacks a centralized security infrastructure. As a result, it has serious security vulnerabilities, and the need for awareness of the security risks are increasing as the technology becomes more widespread. This paper presents an overview of Bluetooth technology in IoT including its security, vulnerabilities, threats, and risk mitigation solutions, as well as real-life examples of exploits. Our study highlights the importance of understanding attack risks and mitigation techniques involved with using Bluetooth technology on our devices. Real-life examples of recent Bluetooth exploits are presented. Several recommended security measures are discussed to secure Bluetooth communication.

Security of IoT devices is getting a lot of attention from researchers as they are becoming prevalent everywhere. However, implementation of hardware security in these devices has been overlooked, and many researches have mainly focused on software, network, and cloud security. A deeper understanding of hardware Trojans (HTs) and protection against them is of utmost importance right now as they are the prime threat to the hardware. This paper emphasizes the need for a secure hardware-level foundation for security of these devices, as depending on software security alone is not adequate enough. These devices must be protected against sophisticated attacks, especially if the groundwork for the attacks is already laid in devices during design or manufacturing process, such as with HTs. This paper will discuss the stealthy nature of these HT, highlight HT taxonomy and insertion methods, and provide countermeasures.

With extraordinary growth in the Internet of Things (IoT), the amount of data exchanged between IoT devices is growing at an unprecedented scale. Most of the IoT devices are low-resource devices handling sensitive and confidential data. Conventional encryption methods are inappropriate for low-resource devices. Lightweight block ciphers are used to encrypt data on such devices, as it balances security requirements and energy consumption. The objective of this research is to explore opportunities to improve performance and optimize energy consumption for cipher designs targeted for low-resource IoT devices. The research also presents an energy management algorithm to improve IoT survivability against Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks in the form of battery exhaustion. We developed a simple and effective model for lightweight cipher performance metrics. Model results were compared and validated with published Application- Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) and Field-programmable Gate Array (FPGA) designs. Using the model, we explored opportunities for performance enhancement in future cipher designs. Our analysis indicates that the optimum energy is achieved when block size is between 48-bit and 96-bit. Also, increasing size of overhead logic from one round to two rounds increases encryption energy-per-bit by 3.4%. Further, the optimum energy is attained when the number of algorithm rounds is 16 or less. Optimum throughput is achieved by implementations with large block sizes and large number of implemented rounds. Next, we present a novel algorithm to manage cipher energy consumption. The algorithm allows low-resource IoT devices to encrypt critical messages during low-energy mode while balancing throughput, energy per bit and device activity.

There is broad consensus that remote health monitoring will benefit all stakeholders in the healthcare system and that it has the potential to save billions of dollars. Among the major concerns that are preventing the patients from widely adopting this technology are data privacy and security. Wireless Medical Sensor Networks (MSNs) are the building blocks for remote health monitoring systems. This paper helps to identify the most challenging security issues in the existing authentication protocols for remote patient monitoring and presents a lightweight public-key-based authentication protocol for MSNs. In MSNs, the nodes are classified into sensors that report measurements about the human body and actuators that receive commands from the medical staff and perform actions. Authenticating these commands is a critical security issue, as any alteration may lead to serious consequences. The proposed protocol is based on the Rabin authentication algorithm, which is modified in this paper to improve its signature signing process, making it suitable for delay-sensitive MSN applications. To prove the efficiency of the Rabin algorithm, we implemented the algorithm with different hardware settings using Tmote Sky motes and also programmed the algorithm on an FPGA to evaluate its design and performance. Furthermore, the proposed protocol is implemented and tested using the MIRACL (Multiprecision Integer and Rational Arithmetic C/C++) library. The results show that secure, direct, instant and authenticated commands can be delivered from the medical staff to the MSN nodes.