As the IoT adoption is growing in several fields, cybersecurity attacks involving low-cost end-user devices are increasing accordingly, undermining the expected deployment of IoT solutions in a broad range of scenarios. To address this challenge, emerging Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies can introduce new security enablers, thereby endowing IoT systems and networks with higher degree of scalability and flexibility required to cope with the security of massive IoT deployments. In this sense, honeynets can be enhanced with SDN and NFV support, to be applied into IoT scenarios thereby strengthening the overall security. IoT honeynets are virtualized services simulating real IoT networks deployments, so that attackers can be distracted from the real target. In this paper, we present a novel mechanism leveraging SDN and NFV aimed to autonomously deploy and enforce IoT honeynets. The system follows a security policy-based approach that facilitates management, enforcement and orchestration of the honeynets and it has been successfully implemented and tested in the scope of H2020 EU project ANASTACIA, showing its feasibility to mitigate cyber-attacks.

The Internet of Things brings a multi-disciplinary revolution in several application areas. However, security and privacy concerns are undermining a reliable and resilient broad-scale deployment of IoT-enabled Critical Infrastructures (IoT-CIs). To fill this gap, this paper proposes a comprehensive architectural design that captures the main security and privacy challenges related to Cyber-physical Systems and IoT-CIs. The architecture is devised to empower IoT systems and networks to make autonomous security decisions through the usage of novel technologies such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), as well as endowing them with intelligent and dynamic security reaction capabilities by relying on monitoring methodologies and cyber-situational tools. The architecture has been successfully implemented and evaluated in the scope of ANASTACIA H2020 EU research project.

Software Defined Network (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are bringing many advantages to optimize and automatize security management at the network edge, enabling the deployment of virtual network security functions (VSFs) in MEC nodes, to strengthen the end-to-end security in IoT environments. The benefits could exploit in mobile MEC nodes on-boarded in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), as the UAVs would carry on-demand VSFs to particular physical locations. To that aim, this paper proposes a novel NFV/SDN-based zero-touch security management framework for automatic orchestration, configuration and deployment of lightweight VSF in MEC-UAVs, that considers diverse contextual factors, related to both physical and virtual conditions, to optimize the security orchestration. Our solution aims to deploy on-demand VSFs, such as virtual Firewalls (vFirewalls), vProxies, vIDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) and vAAA, to assist during emerging situations in particular physical locations, protecting and optimizing the managed IoT network, as well as replacing or supporting compromised physical devices like IoT gateways. The proposed solution has been implemented, deployed and evaluated in a real testbed with real drones, showing its feasibility and performance.

IoT systems can be leveraged by Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, thereby strengthening their overall flexibility, security and resilience. In this sense, adaptive and policy-based security frameworks for SDN/NFV-aware IoT systems can provide a remarkable added value for self-protection and self-healing, by orchestrating and enforcing dynamically security policies and associated Virtual Network Functions (VNF) or Virtual network Security Functions (VSF) according to the actual context. However, this security orchestration is subject to multiple possible inconsistencies between the policies to enforce, the already enforced management policies and the evolving status of the managed IoT system. In this regard, this paper presents a semantic-aware, zero-touch and policy-driven security orchestration framework for autonomic and conflict-less security orchestration in SDN/NFV-aware IoT scenarios while ensuring optimal allocation and Service Function Chaining (SFC) of VSF. The framework relies on Semantic technologies and considers the security policies and the evolving IoT system model to dynamically and formally detect any semantic conflict during the orchestration. In addition, our optimized SFC algorithm maximizes the QoS, security aspects and resources usage during VSF allocation. The orchestration security framework has been implemented and validated showing its feasibility and performance to detect the conflicts and optimally enforce the VSFs.

The increase of Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technologies is bringing many security management benefits that can be exploited at the edge of Internet of Things (IoT) networks to deal with cyber-threats. In this sense, this paper presents and evaluates a novel policy-based and cyber-situational awareness security framework for continuous and dynamic management of Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA) as well as Channel Protection virtual security functions in IoT networks enabled with SDN/NFV. The virtual AAA, including network authenticators, are deployed as VNF (Virtual Network Function) dynamically at the edge, in order to enable scalable device’s bootstrapping and managing the access control of IoT devices to the network. In addition, our solution allows distributing dynamically the necessary crypto-keys for IoT Machine to Machine (M2M) communications and deploy virtual Channel-protection proxys as VNFs, with the aim of establishing secure tunnels among IoT devices and services, according to the contextual decisions inferred by the cognitive framework. The solution has been implemented and evaluated, demonstrating its feasibility to manage dynamically AAA and channel protection in SDN/NFV-enabled IoT scenarios.

Despite the advantages that the Internet of Things (IoT) will bring to our daily life, the increasing interconnectivity, as well as the amount and sensitivity of data, make IoT devices an attractive target for attackers. To address this issue, the recent Manufacturer Usage Description (MUD) standard has been proposed to describe network access control policies in the manufacturing phase to protect the device during its operation by restricting its communications. In this paper, we define an architecture and process to obtain and enforce the MUD restrictions during the bootstrapping of a device. Furthermore, we extend the MUD model with a flexible policy language to express additional aspects, such as data privacy, channel protection, and resource authorization. For the enforcement of such enriched behavioral profiles, we make use of Software Defined Networking (SDN) techniques, as well as an attribute-based access control approach by using authorization credentials and encryption techniques. These techniques are used to protect devices’ data, which are shared through a blockchain platform. The resulting approach was implemented and evaluated in a real scenario, and is intended to reduce the attack surface of IoT deployments by restricting devices’ communication before they join a certain network.