Challenges to securing the Internet of Things

Great advances in technology have paved the way for the computerization and interconnectedness of the world around us. The Internet of Things (IoT) describes a network comprised of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with manufacturers, users, and/or other connected devices. However, it is often the case that some of these devices are constrained by limited processing power, memory, and power consumption. These limitations may enable adverse effects as the IoT becomes pervasive, reaching into infrastructure, vehicles, and homes. As history has shown, the architects of the Internet were focused primarily on the efficiency and scaling aspects of data transfer protocols; at the dawn of the Internet, network and computer security were vacant research areas. The current trend shows the IoT market growing at an accelerated rate - will security again become an afterthought? The goal of this paper is to provide to not only a better understanding of the various IoT domains, but to survey the shortcomings and challenges to securing IoT devices and their interactions with cloud and enterprise applications.