The Internet of Things: Security Challenges

The five articles in this special section focus on Internet of Things (IoT)security and privacy issues. IoT involves embedding, at massive scale, processor-based systems into physical infrastructure and everyday objects, including things that neither look like computers nor communicate using the Internet Protocol. Two important elements are of note: sensors that provide an input mechanism from the real world to the digital world (essentially present in all IoT systems) and actuators that result in mechanically induced changes to the physical world (commonly a defining characteristic of cyberphysical systems). Historically, when things went wrong in the traditional Internet, or the Internet of Computers (IoC), this caused problems in the digital world of computers—and occasionally, this would indirectly impact the physical world. For example, corrupted databases could disrupt air travel, and theft of credit card or banking information could lead to financial losses. In contrast, when things go wrong in an IoT world, there can be direct physical consequences in the real world: for example, unlocking a gate or building door, altering heating or cooling systems, affecting the steering or braking of a vehicle, even, perhaps, killing the host of an implanted medical device. In this sense, with the IoT, security-related problems in the digital world have greater direct consequences on physical-world safety and security.