IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Security and Privacy for Cloud and IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT), which enables a wide variety of embedded devices, sensors, and actuators (known as smart things) to interconnect and exchange data, is a promising network scenario for bridging physical devices and virtual objects in the cyber world. Considering the limited capacity of smart things, cloud computing has been introduced to store and process the huge amount of data collected by the IoT. The appropriate integration of cloud computing and the IoT can be regarded as the best of two worlds, simultaneously providing omnipresent sensing services and powerful processing capabilities. Undoubtedly, the cloud-assisted IoT will boost the advancement of innovative applications and services including smart cities, industrial IoT, intelligent transportation, and electronic health systems. Despite the benefits of cloud-aided IoT, it is impossible to overlook the significance of security and privacy in this kind of highly heterogeneous and interconnected system. To deal with security threats to smart devices and sensitive data, hundreds of security solutions have recently been put forward for either the cloud or IoT environments. However, a few important characteristics such as heterogeneity and scalability have not been properly considered in these solutions.