Narrow-band Internet of Things Protocol Standards: Survey of Security and Privacy Control Effectiveness

A survey was conducted on the effectiveness of security and privacy control trade-offs for competing Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) protocol standards including those from SigFox, LoRa, and 3GPP. As a basis for the comparative review, a novel approach was undertaken to apply a combination of STRIDE threat modeling methodology and simplified risk rating system in order to support recommendations for risk remediation necessary to treat elevated risk. The findings suggested that SigFox had a relatively high overall simplified risk rating, LoRa had a slightly greater simplified risk rating than 3GPP, and a 3GPP had a relatively low overall simplified risk rating among the three network protocols reviewed. Likewise, treatment associated with elevated simplified risk rating was suggested as an approach to increase control effectiveness identified for each of the NB-IoT network protocols within the survey.