On Cryptographic Approaches to Internet-Of-Things Security

Internet Of Things is an evolution and superset of current internet of networks of computers. We are already on the way of connecting every Thing to internet, mobile internet focusing on 3G phones is a good pioneer example. Our focuses are turning from devices with high capability of computing and storage to those with constrained resources (CPU, memory, energy), from reliable transportations to lossy networks, from comfortable indoor install environments to all kinds of outdoor environments, from rather static user behaviors to variant user behaviors[1]. Given complicated IP protocols (e.g. IPv6 with many extensions and numerous options[3] , IPSEC with so many RFCs[4]) and all kinds of specialized sensor networks, e.g. Zigbee, the work is to adapt and converge them together. So many mismatches, e.g. capability mismatch between different devices, mismatch between communications and processing bandwidth[2], need to patch. Another important mismatch is from difference between the malicious environment of IOT and the current experience derived from internet. Most of the security issues in IOT [5,6,7] are familiar, because they also exist in current internet. For example, eavesdropping, false routing, message tampering, unauthorized usage, DOS attack. we are not unprepared in this field. A difference is that the specific attacks leading to the issues may be quite different. For example, DOS attacks can be achieved by sending signals to keep nodes from slumber[7]. Some issues may be major concerns in IOT but not in current internet. For example, because devices are easy to access physically or wirelessly in IOT, then physical destruction, secret extraction. tampering of nodes are more serious[7]. Therefore, resolutions to deal with the issues are required to have some extra characteristics, e.g., resilience in case nodes are compromised[7], and lightweight cryptographic technologies are preferred[14]. It is easy to misunderstand " lightweight " as less secure. Although devices to be protected are constrained in resources, but attackers are not. So we need security techniques and mechanisms that are lightweight in resource consuming, but NOT in security weight. As reported in [14], in lightweight cryptography, we have secure symmetric cryptography: AES,CLEFIA and PRESENT, stream ciphers: Grain v1, MICKEY v2, and Trivium. But we don't have good candidate in Hash function[14,15], maybe. As for asymmetric cryptography, ECC[13], XTR[17], IBC[11,12] are available candidates. We also need security architectures, e.g., key management scheme including key provisioning, key updating, key revocation etc. In category of asymmetric keys, PKI is a mature scheme, and …