A Secure Cloud-Based Infrastructure for Virtual Sensors in IoT Environments

Recent work has proven the effort of researchers to integrate small sensors and a cloud environment, delivering the Internet of Things (IoT). Sensors as a service are one of the leading research concerns in this context. Nevertheless, security is becoming one of the most significant attributes of the IoT as sensors become more human-independent and are being extensively used to monitor human lives. That way, IoT brings many key security challenges that need attention, some of which we address in this position paper. We present a cloud-based infrastructure that can deliver sensors and actuators as a service, providing secure communication between them and the control nodes on which IoT applications rely while implementing Big Data algorithms. For mapping our proposal, two scenarios related to Health Assistance are discussed, considering secure communications in a sensor network. In conclusion, we propose a scope for future research in this field considering digital twin concepts. Since domains exploiting IoT technologies can benefit from adopting Digital Twin, our goal is to evolve a virtual sensor and actuator system into this technology.