Securing smart home: Technologies, security challenges, and security requirements

Smart homes are gaining vast popularity as the most promising application of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Exploiting the high level of connectivity present in current electronic devices (such as smartphones, tablets, and multimedia systems), smart homes provide innovative, automated and interactive services for residential customers through distributed and collaborative operations. As these types of networks become enormously popular, it is fundamental to provide the adequate level of protection against cyber-attacks for the residential customers. However, the resource-constrained nature of many of the devices present in a smart home environment, does not permit to implement the standard security solutions and therefore smart homes currently present security vulnerabilities. In this paper the security challenges and threats to the existing solutions suited for smart homes are examined in detail with the objective of fostering the development of practical solutions to secure the smart homes.