Context-Aware Authentication: State-of-the-Art Evaluation and Adaption to the IIoT

Authentication is an important and non-trivial topic for the security of the tremendously growing industrial Internet of Things. Classical authentication methods often do not meet the requirements of IoT networks, where computing power and bandwidth are usually constrained. This overview paper therefore turns its attention to context-aware authentication, a method that uses features of a shared or otherwise known context to mutually authenticate devices. First the idea of context-aware authentication and the state of the art in research is introduced. The work done so far is then evaluated, with a focus on the examined context features and authentication mechanisms. Afterwards it is discussed how context-awareness can be transferred from user-centric towards machine-to-machine authentication in the industrial IoT. The specific requirements are discussed together with use-cases for Smart Logistics and Industry 4.0.