Cloud Infrastructure For Securing IOT Device and Data

Question: Discuss about theCloud Infrastructure for Securing IOT Device and Data. Answer: Introduction/Description In the current scenario cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) are creating waves across all application areas. IoT encompasses a variety of communicating devices namely RFID, wireless sensors, etc. which make use of wired or wireless medium or cellular networks (3G, 4G) to transfer data and is increasingly employed in a variety of smart monitoring and control applications [1]. IoT devices are flexible as they make use of different technologies, services and standards, therefore, they are generating a lot of interest in machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and in the areas of ICT applications, at least for the next decade as perceived by many experts [2]. Therefore, IoT can be understood as a collection of devices which work collaboratively in many applications involving data communications. In spite of these benefits, IoT devices are constrained by limitations in their storage, processing capacity and there are a number of issues related to security, privacy, reliability and performance. Hence, data streams transmitted by IoT devices are not fully secure and are vulnerable because of their open nature. Cloud computing offers ubiquitous IT services in and has virtually unlimited capacities and capabilities to provide processing power, storage, network, and infrastructure. Cloud computing is characterized by service models and deployment models. Service models offer a unique set of computing resources to suit different needs. Cloud computing models have the capability to handle IoT devices and can partially solve IoT requirements. In this report, the integration of IoT and cloud computing is explored because these two areas are setting the trend for new novel IT paradigm and viewed as the future internet. The merging of these two areas is also known as CloudIot paradigm [3]. The report will discuss the need for cloud security infrastructure for IoT to ensure secure device and data management. The report also provides summaries on IoT architecture and how cloud architecture can handle IoT devices and complement each other to resolve issues in privacy, security, confidentiality and performance. Background IoT and cloud have evolved independently and rapidly through these years, but their characteristics are found to complement each other. The aspects of cloud and IoT that complement each other are found in the areas of reachability, computational capabilities, storage, their role on the internet, computing elements and displacement. The characteristics related to these aspects in the case of IoT are: limited reachability, limited compute capability, very limited or no storage, point of convergence for data and IoT devices are pervasive. IoT devices are also difficult to manage because they are distributed. Likewise, the aspects for cloud are unlimited resources and services, virtual resources, unlimited storage, easy scalability, and a means of service delivery on the internet. Cloud computing management is centralized and hence easy to manage and enforce controls. Due to these characteristics, there is an emerging interest in integrating IoT devices in cloud services to have the bene fit of using unlimited cloud resources to overcome the limitations in IoT devices [4]. To understand the security risks posed by IoT, the generic architecture of IoT is first understood for its vulnerabilities. The IoT architecture is made up of four layers: Perception layer, Network layer, Middleware or separation layer and Application layer. Each layer is vulnerable to different security issues. Some of the security vulnerabilities in IoT architecture include eavesdropping, spoofing, RF jamming attacks, man-in-the-middle attack, DoS, phishing and sniffing attacks. Data streams from IoT devices are vulnerable to these attacks. Hence, security in IoT devices is highly crucial. The security objectives in IoT will include authentication, confidentiality, and integrity. Any data breach in any of these objectives will quite likely compromise the device and data. Cloud computing infrastructures are developed using industry best practices to comply with global security management standards (ISO, ITIL, PCI-DSS, etc.) and hence these three areas of authentication, confidentiality and integrity are mandatory requirements in any type of cloud infrastructure. In cloud services every user is established and permissions granted accordingly. Authentication process validates an individual user from his/her username and passwords to verify with their cloud profile [5]. In the case of IoT, the device will need to authenticate itself to participate in the cloud infrastructure and hence it makes use of a custom encapsulation mechanism called the smart business security IoT application protocol [6]. This protocol will establish cross-platform secure communications with encryption and authentication to enhance IoT development capabilities. Confidentiality and Integrity are major aspects of cloud computing because data is distributed across different data centers in databases. Therefore, confidentiality is asserted for user profiles to protect their data and allows for information security protocols applied at different layers in the cloud infrastructure. Integrity refers to data consistency, durability, and isolation in cloud environments. The existing management systems in relation to confidentiality and integrity in IoT context is analyzed for key management systems are applied [7]. There are four major frameworks in key management systems namely key pool framework, mathematical framework, negotiation framework and public key framework. These frameworks are not suitable for IoT. Hence to ensure the integrity and confidentiality more lightweight encryption methods involving XOR manipulation and anti-counterfeiting and privacy protection [8] to handle IoT devices as they are resource constrained. Confidentiality and in tegrity in IoT include security mechanisms such as data encryption methods that make data unreadable for neighboring devices. The aspect of availability in IoT relates to continuous streams of data which merge well with the ubiquitous service availability in the cloud. In summary, it can be noted that IoT and cloud infrastructures though have evolved separately, can be integrated to provide many benefits. The aspects that are common to both IoT and cloud paradigms are compared and discussed. IoT devices have many limitations in terms of resources and are vulnerable to security breaches. Cloud infrastructures make use of global security standards which can complement IoT devices in overcoming their security issues and participate in the network with secured data and device managements. References D. Miorandi, S. Sicari, F. De Pellegrini, I. Chlamtac, Survey internet of things: vision, applications and research challenges, Ad Hoc Networks. 10 (7) (2012) 14971516. D. Boswarthick, O. Elloumi, O. Hersent, M2M Communications: A Systems Approach, first ed., Wiley Publishing, 2012. H.-C. Chao. Internet of things and cloud computing for future internet. In Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. 2011. Aitken, R., Chandra, V., Myers, J., Sandhu, B., Shifren, L., Yeric, G., 2014. Device and technology implications of the internet of things. In: VLSI Technology (VLSI-Technology): Digest of Technical Papers, 2014 Symposium on. pp. 1-4. Ramgovind, S., Eloff, M.M., Smith, E. The Management of Security in Cloud Computing. IEEE 2010, pp. 1-4. Y. Zhao, Research on data security technology in internet of things, in: 2013 2nd International Conference on Mechatronics and Control Engineering, ICMCE 2013, Dalian, China, 2013, pp. 17521755 R. Roman, C. Alcaraz, J. Lopez, N. Sklavos, Key management systems for sensor networks in the context of the internet of things, Comput. Electrical Eng. 37 (2), 2011, pp. 147159. J.-Y. Lee, W.-C. Lin, Y.-H.Huang, A lightweight authentication protocol for internet of things, in: 2014 International Symposium on Next-Generation Electronics, ISNE 2014, Kwei-Shan, 2014, pp. 12