When the Internet of Things (IoT) limited to RFID, security was assured by encrypted identity and passive characteristics with “intelligence” concentrated in the active transceiver. Now however, IoT devices have local computational and communication capabilities which make them vulnerable to all the attacks that can be directed against any computer-communication system. In addition, the applications that use the IoT can themselves be compromised by the IoT, as well as all the other sources of malicious attacks in the Internet.
Cyberattacks to the IoT, even when they are detected, can inflict major damage by blocking the access for legitimate traffic and impairing the work of sensors, robots and actuators, with major consequences for components such as robots, actuators, smart vehicles, and supply chains. Indeed, malicious attacks create system and network congestion, quality of service (QoS) degradation, degradation of the commercial image or trust in a service system, substantial increase in energy consumption during the attack detection and mitigation phases, and especially impair the role of IoT devices that participate in the control of critical physical, chemical, and industrial processes, and human beings (in health monitoring, fitness sensing, and esp. drug delivery devices), as actuators in critical applications such as industrial control or vehicle and traffic control. This brings security of the IoT to the forefront of research.
The cyber-threats that we have outlined are the motivation for the SerIoT project, whose goal is to optimize information and data security in IoT platforms and networks in a holistic, cross-layered manner (i.e. IoT platforms & devices, honeypots, Access Control, Attack Detecton, SDN routers and operator’s controller) while offering Quality of Service (QoS) and insuring energy savings. The results obtained by the project are implemented in software and demonstrated used to achieve secure IoT ecosystems and networks anywhere and everywhere, while respecting important QoS metrics for end-users, and limiting energy consumption in the system.
The SerIoT project finds its origins in earlier work on Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks and network storms in successful EU Projects FP7 NEMESYS and FP6 CASCADAS. Bringing together star European technology companies DT/T-Sys. and ATOS, with highly competent SMEs such as HIS, HOPU, and HIT, world-leading European research organizations IITIS, CERTH, JRC, and TECNALIA, and universities UESSEX, Technical University of thens (ICCS) and TUB with savvy users AustriaTech and OASA, the SerIoT Project develops, implements and tests a generic IoT framework based on Cognitively Enhanced smart Software Defined Networks using rigorous Random Neural Networks, augmented with secure routers. The SerIoT system incorporates attack detection and mitigation, QoS and Energy-Aware Routing, advanced analytics and user-friendly data analytics with visual monitoring.
