As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to evolve, securing IoT networks and devices remains a continuing challenge. Anomaly detection is a crucial procedure in protecting the IoT. A promising way to perform anomaly detection in the IoT is through the use of machine learning (ML) algorithms. There is a lack of studies in the literature identifying optimal (with regard to both effectiveness and efficiency) anomaly detection models for the IoT. To fill the gap, this work thoroughly investigated the effectiveness and efficiency of IoT anomaly detection enabled by several representative machine learning models, namely Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Support Vector Machines (SVMs), and Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs). Identifying optimal anomaly detection models for IoT anomaly detection is challenging due to diverse IoT applications and dynamic IoT networking environments. It is of vital importance to evaluate ML-powered anomaly detection models using multiple datasets collected from different environments. We utilized three reputable datasets to benchmark the aforementioned machine learning methods, namely, IoT-23, NSL-KDD, and TON_IoT. Our results show that XGBoost outperformed both the SVM and DCNN, achieving accuracies of up to 99.98%. Moreover, XGBoost proved to be the most computationally efficient method; the model performed 717.75 times faster than the SVM and significantly faster than the DCNN in terms of training times. The research results have been further confirmed by using our real-world IoT data collected from an IoT testbed consisting of physical devices that we recently built.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized industries by enabling seamless data exchange between billions of connected devices. However, the rapid proliferation of IoT devices has introduced significant security challenges, as many of these devices lack robust protection against cyber threats such as data breaches and denial-of-service attacks. Addressing these vulnerabilities is critical to maintaining the integrity and trust of IoT ecosystems. Traditional cybersecurity solutions often fail in dynamic, heterogeneous IoT environments due to device diversity, limited computational resources, and inconsistent communication protocols, which hinder the deployment of uniform and scalable security mechanisms. Moreover, there is a notable lack of realistic, high-quality datasets for training and evaluating machine learning (ML) models for IoT security, limiting their effectiveness in detecting complex and evolving threats. This paper presents the development and implementation of a novel physical smart office/home testbed designed to evaluate ML algorithms for detecting and mitigating IoT security vulnerabilities. The testbed replicates a real-world office environment, integrating a variety of IoT devices, such as different types of sensors, cameras, smart plugs, and workstations, within a network generating authentic traffic patterns. By simulating diverse attack scenarios including unauthorized access and network intrusions, the testbed provides a controlled platform to train, test, and validate ML-based anomaly detection systems. Experimental results show that the XGBoost model achieved a balanced accuracy of up to 99.977% on testbed-generated data, comparable to 99.985% on the benchmark IoT-23 dataset. Notably, the SVM model achieved up to 96.71% accuracy using our testbed data, outperforming its results on IoT-23, which peaked at 94.572%. The findings demonstrate the testbed’s effectiveness in enabling realistic security evaluations and ability to generate real-world datasets, highlighting its potential as a valuable tool for advancing IoT security research. This work contributes to the development of more resilient and adaptive security frameworks, offering valuable insights for safeguarding critical IoT infrastructures against evolving threats.