Enforcing security and safety policies in IoT applications

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Smart devices (IoT) are omnipresent in both private and public spaces. There are now billions of them worldwide and this number is still growing. IoT devices are composed of sensors, actuators and software components. While these devices contribute to offering a better lifestyle and better performances their extensive use and their interconnectivity pose many challenges in terms of safety, security and privacy. The purpose of this proposal is to address some of these challenges by developing formally based techniques and mechanisms to detect security flaws in IoT applications and enforcement mechanisms aimed at correcting or avoiding them. More precisely, we will strive to bring relevant answers to the following challenges. a) In order to operate adequately, smart devices have access to sensitive information on which they base decisions. We must ensure that this sensitive information does not leak to untrusted parties. b) Applications may trigger via actuators, actions on physical devices such as open or close a door, put on a heater or an engine, etc. We seek to find how to ensure that these actions do not compromise safety or security and that they are compliant to the end-user intents. c) An IoT application may control many devices. Many applications can work concurrently in an interconnected way. Which models should be used to allow the best trade-off between acceptable performances and solid guarantees concerning safety, security and privacy. d) Which security and safety policies should be enforced and which mechanisms should be used to enforce them? The challenge is that halting-based enforcement mechanisms are not adequate in the IoT context. We must find corrective enforcement mechanisms that do not interrupt vital services. e) How to scale the proposed techniques to a context where smart devices generate a huge number of events and have to comply with a huger number of rules? Some of the challenges are related to security issues in general but many are IoT specific. Smart devices have limited memories and computation capabilities. Physical events are sensed by captors and actuated by smart devices. These events constitute a part of the communication paradigm in an IoT environment and must be dealt with appropriately. Representing these events in a relevant way is challenging. The environment that communicates with smart devices is not only physical but it includes web-based services such that IFTTT (IF This Then That) applets. These applets have to be considered when we devise our analyses and enforcement mechanisms. The research work proposed in this program is an opportunity to train students in computing security, a domain where the lack of highly qualified personnel is important and where the needs are tremendous. Enforcing security and safety of IoT environments operating is urgent and the success of this kind of research will bring benefits not only to the Canadian society but also worldwide.