A key application of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm lies within industrial contexts. Indeed, the emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), commonly referred to as Industry 4.0, promises to revolutionize production and manufacturing through the use of large numbers of networked embedded sensing devices, and the combination of emerging computing technologies, such as Fog/Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence. The IIoT is characterized by an increased degree of inter-connectivity, which not only creates opportunities for the industries that adopt it, but also for cyber-criminals. Indeed, IoT security currently represents one of the major obstacles that prevent the widespread adoption of IIoT technology. Unsurprisingly, such concerns led to an exponential growth of published research over the last few years. To get an overview of the field, we deem it important to systematically survey the academic literature so far, and distill from it various security requirements as well as their popularity. This paper consists of two contributions: our primary contribution is a systematic review of the literature over the period 2011-2019 on IIoT Security, focusing in particular on the security requirements of the IIoT. Our secondary contribution is a reflection on how the relatively new paradigm of Fog computing can be leveraged to address these requirements, and thus improve the security of the IIoT.
In the last few years, Internet of Things, Cloud computing, Edge computing, and Fog computing have gained a lot of attention in both industry and academia. However, a clear and neat definition of these computing paradigms and their correlation is hard to find in the literature. This makes it difficult for researchers new to this area to get a concrete picture of these paradigms. This work tackles this deficiency, representing a helpful resource for those who will start next. First, we show the evolution of modern computing paradigms and related research interest. Then, we address each paradigm, neatly delineating its key points and its relation with the others. Thereafter, we extensively address Fog computing, remarking its outstanding role as the glue between IoT, Cloud, and Edge computing. In the end, we briefly present open challenges and future research directions for IoT, Cloud, Edge, and Fog computing.
18 February 2018 in Security and Communication Networks
The Internet of Things (IoT) revolution has not only carried the astonishing promise to interconnect a whole generation of traditionally “dumb” devices, but also brought to the Internet the menace of billions of badly protected and easily hackable objects. Not surprisingly, this sudden flooding of fresh and insecure devices fueled older threats, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. In this paper, we first propose an updated and comprehensive taxonomy of DDoS attacks, together with a number of examples on how this classification maps to real-world attacks. Then, we outline the current situation of DDoS-enabled malwares in IoT networks, highlighting how recent data support our concerns about the growing in popularity of these malwares. Finally, we give a detailed analysis of the general framework and the operating principles of Mirai, the most disruptive DDoS-capable IoT malware seen so far.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is rapidly changing our society to a world where every “thing” is connected to the Internet, making computing pervasive like never before. This tsunami of connectivity and data collection relies more and more on the Cloud, where data analytics and intelligence actually reside. Cloud computing has indeed revolutionized the way computational resources and services can be used and accessed, implementing the concept of utility computing whose advantages are undeniable for every business. However, despite the benefits in terms of flexibility, economic savings, and support of new services, its widespread adoption is hindered by the security issues arising with its usage. From a security perspective, the technological revolution introduced by IoT and Cloud computing can represent a disaster, as each object might become inherently remotely hackable and, as a consequence, controllable by malicious actors. While the literature mostly focuses on the security of IoT and Cloud computing as separate entities, in this article we provide an up-to-date and well-structured survey of the security issues of cloud computing in the IoT era. We give a clear picture of where security issues occur and what their potential impact is. As a result, we claim that it is not enough to secure IoT devices, as cyber-storms come from Clouds.
Industry 4.0 and, in particular, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) represent two of the major automation and data exchange trends of the 21st century, driving a steady increase in the number of smart embedded devices used by industrial applications. However, IoT devices suffer from numerous security flaws, resulting in a number of large scale cyber-attacks. In this light, Fog computing, a relatively new paradigm born from the necessity of bridging the gap between Cloud computing and IoT, can be used as a security solution for the IIoT. To achieve this, the first step is to clearly identify the security requirements of the IIoT that can be subsequently used to design security solutions based on Fog computing. With this in mind, our paper represents a preliminary work towards a systematic literature review of IIoT security requirements. We focus on two key steps of the review: (1) the research method that will be used in the systematic work and (2) a quantitative analysis of the results produced by the study selection process. This lays the necessary foundations to enable the use of Fog computing as a security solution for the IIoT.