IoT-HarPSecA: A Framework for Facilitating the Design and Development of Secure IoT Devices

ABSTRACT

The exponential growth in the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and applications in recent years can be attributed partly to the emergence of several new IoT startup companies and potential applications. While many of these startups offer significant innovations in the IoT, some of them lack security expertise, resulting in the development of ill-equipped IoT devices and applications in terms of security. For example, one of the fundamental problems faced by non-security experts in the IoT space is how to select the right Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithm (LWCA) for a given security requirement. To address this specific problem, an IoT Hardware Platform Security Advisor (IoT-HarPSecA) framework is proposed in this paper. The security framework is aimed at facilitating the choice of specific security algorithms given a set of security goals, hardware specifications, message payload size, application area, and energy requirement. Within the scope of this framework, we develop an easy-to-use tool in C++ that allows users to interact with the IoT-HarPSecA framework. The tool can potentially help non-security experts, such as electronics and computer engineers as well as application developers make informed decisions on selecting the appropriate security algorithms for their various applications. Finally, the paper presents some preliminary results and discussion.

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