Detection of Malicious Activities in Internet of Things Environment Based on Binary Visualization and Machine Intelligence

The Internet of Things (IoT) devices is able to communicate with another IoT devices in heterogeneous environments. They are also able to create a network by their own using wireless capabilities without a centralized approach. This network is called wireless mobile ad hoc network (MANET). The MANET facilitate IoT devices to communicate with each other in an infrastructure less network of the Internet of Things environment. The IoT devices can dynamically join, create connection and exchange information among them. The role of cloud in this framework is to store and process the data by IoT devices. The communication Security has been raised as one of the most critical issues of cloud computing where resolving such an issue would result in a constant growth in the use and popularity of cloud. Our purpose of this study is to create a framework for providing the communication in an integrated framework of Cloud and MANET among IoT devices. Our main contribution links a new study that integrates cloud computing to the MANET and provides communication to the internet of things. This study can be used in the framework of the Internet of Things in future.

With the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, cybersecurity has become an increasingly pressing concern. Due to their inherent vulnerabilities and the severity of the threats posed by malware, robust malware detection strategies for IoT devices are in high demand. However, the constraints imposed by the limited memory and processing power of IoT devices, alongside with the varied nature of these devices, have limited the development of effective malware detection strategies. Existing solutions primarily use either local computation or cloud-based services, each with its own set of challenges. In this paper, we propose a hybrid malware detection method that leverages both local and cloud-based computation to address these challenges. This method, based on similarity computations, optimizes the trade-off between computational resources and latency, offering an effective approach for malware detection in IoT devices. Through experimental evaluation using a substantial IoT malware dataset, we demonstrate that our proposed approach achieves an optimal balance between local and cloud-based computations, providing a promising solution for malware detection in IoT context.

Recent advances in Internet of Things (IoT) technologies require a new type of IoT security environment. Various heterogeneous smart devices have easy access to IoT environment, and as the number of users increases, they are exposed to various threats such as malicious attacks on IoT devices and IoT infrastructure, and data tampering by malicious code. Malware detection in IoT requires data and models for continuous and changing learning of smart devices. Methods/Statistical analysis: To minimize these security threats, various malware detection techniques in the field of IoT security have been studied. Malware detection in IoT environment is important for data derivation and learning model required for continuous and changing learning of smart devices. The metadata of malware detection can be normalized by the value of device id, time, behavior, location and state. This paper proposes behavior-based malware detection using deep learning (BMD-DL). Findings: BMD-DL was able to collect metadata about behavior-based malicious behavior and learn and detect malicious codes through deep learning. In addition, through the learned model, IoT Security is provided by disconnecting malicious devices that cause malicious behavior in the IoT environment. Improvements/Applications: BMD-DL collects behavioral data generated from multiple devices in the IoT and applies the results learned through deep learning to detect persistent malware.

Anomaly detection framework for Internet of things traffic using vector convolutional deep learning approach in fog environment

The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, coupled with their inherent security vulnerabilities, has significantly expanded the attack surface, intensifying threats such as man-in-the-middle attacks, traffic hijacking, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, thereby posing serious risks to the security and reliability of the entire ecosystem. The network traffic associated with IoT devices is diverse and dynamic, often exhibiting complex structural features such as periodic fluctuations, varying packet sizes, and time-varying patterns that make detection challenging. Although deep learning has demonstrated strong capabilities in efficiently identifying complex and dynamic malicious traffic through powerful feature extraction and adaptive learning abilities, its high model complexity, substantial computational demands, and large parameter sizes hinder direct deployment on resource-constrained IoT devices. In order to tackle this issue, this paper proposes a malicious traffic detection framework for the Internet of Things (IoT) based on multi-teacher knowledge distillation. The proposed model, termed the Lightweight Multi-Teacher Spatiotemporal Distillation Neural Network (LMT-SDNN), employs two high-performance teacher models: Residual Inception and a One-Dimension Convolution Netural Network (1D-CNN) integrated with idirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM), to effectively capture the complex structural features of network traffic. Furthermore, a novel Time-Related Window Loss (TRW) function is design to enhance the student’s ability to capture temporal features, thereby improving its overall performance. The effectiveness of LMT-SDNN is validated through comparisons with five baseline models on two publicly available datasets, ToN_IoT and BoT_IoT. Experimental results show that LMT-SDNN achieves a compression rate of over 99% in both model complexity and parameter count, while maintaining an accuracy exceeding 99%, indicating its strong potential for multiclass malicious traffic detection in IoT environments.

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has brought unprecedented convenience to our lives, but it has also opened the door to new security challenges. One of the most pressing threats in the IoT landscape is the proliferation of BotNets, which can compromise and control a multitude of devices for malicious purposes. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to address this issue: a Federated Machine Learning Solution for BotNet detection in IoT environments. Our method leverages the collective intelligence of distributed IoT devices while respecting privacy constraints, ensuring that sensitive data never leaves the device. We present a detailed methodology for federated model construction, including data collection, local model training, and secure aggregation. The resulting federated model offers improved accuracy and robustness in BotNet detection, as demonstrated through rigorous evaluation on the N-BaIoT dataset. Our findings underscore the effectiveness of this approach in enhancing IoT device security by detecting and mitigating BotNet threats while safeguarding data privacy. This paper contributes to the advancement of IoT security strategies and provides a framework for protecting IoT devices against evolving threats in a federated and privacy-preserving manner.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a technological innovation that brings many benefits in various sectors, but also presents challenges, especially in terms of cybersecurity. One of the main threats is malware, which can damage devices, steal data, and disrupt system performance. With the increasing use of IoT, malware attacks on IoT devices are a serious concern. Previous research shows that malware detection models in IoT devices still have shortcomings, especially in terms of accuracy. One of the algorithms used in malware detection, Naïve Bayes, has been shown to provide low accuracy results. This study aims to improve the accuracy of malware detection on IoT networks by applying Ensemble learning techniques using traffic data from the IoT-23 dataset. The methodology used refers to the CRISP-DM (Cross Industry Standard Process for Data Mining) framework, which includes the stages of domain understanding, data understanding, data preparation, modelling, evaluation, and deployment. The results show that Ensemble learning improved the performance of individual models. Naïve Bayes as a single model produces an accuracy of 0.24, increasing to 0.35 when combined with AdaBoost, and 0.99 when combined with XGBoost. The combination of the three models also produced an accuracy of 0.99. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of ensemble learning in improving malware detection accuracy in IoT environments.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has had a considerable influence on our daily lives by enabling enhanced connection of devices, systems, and services that extends beyond machine-to-machine interactions and encompasses a wide range of protocols, domains, and applications. However, despite privacy concerns shown by IoT users, little has been done to reduce and protect individual information exposure. It is extremely difficult to mitigate IoT devices from reidentification threats which is why it is still a major challenge for IoT users to securely protect their information. The trust controls how we regulate privacy in our IoT platforms in the same way that it governs personal relationships. As IoT devices become increasingly linked, more data is shared across individuals, businesses, governments, and ecosystems. Technologies, sensors, machines, data, and cloud connections all rely largely on trust relationships that have been formed. With the rapid growth of additional types of IoT devices that are being introduced, it, therefore, expands privacy concerns and is difficult to develop trust with an IoT system or device without the option to regulate information privacy settings. Privacy has always been a barrier for many devices as they race for the early adoption of IoT technologies. Several Internet of Things devices or systems will continue to pose privacy threats. As a result, the main objective of this study was to examine the individual understanding of privacy and to promote information privacy protection awareness not only to IoT users but also to organizations that use IoT devices or platforms to run their day-to-day business operations. Furthermore, the objective extends to compare user knowledge and concerns about IoT privacy, as well as to identify any common attitudes and variances. However, in terms of enhancing individuals’ knowledge, an artifact was developed to educate and enhance information privacy awareness among IoT users. A pre- and postquestionnaire was generated to test and validate user knowledge regarding information privacy protection in IoT. The study was conducted using a quantitative research method. Findings indicate that IoT users’ awareness of information privacy protection turned out to be average, suggesting a need for education and awareness. Several participants stated that information privacy protection awareness is required within the community to educate, raise awareness, eliminate human error, and enable individuals to be conscious of their privacy when surfing the Internet.

Seeing is not always believing: Insights on IoT manufacturing from firmware composition analysis and vendor survey

With the advancement in science and technology, the demand for electronic Internet of Things (IoT) devices has increased to store and process digital data. With the advancement in IoT technology, we are more reliant on IoT devices to perform our regular tasks. IoT Forensics deals with the investigation of IoT devices such as smartphones, tablets, smart watches, or any device which is connected to the Internet. The data on these devices can still be retrieved via IoT forensics even if they are destroyed, resold, or misplaced. Before discarding any IoT device, we must consider how to secure the data stored on them. We are then going to discuss the several types of personal data that could be retrieved from discarded IoT devices. Finally, we are going to discuss the protection measures for the safe disposal of IoT devices.

<abstract> <p>With the widespread use of Internet, Internet of Things (IoT) devices have exponentially increased. These devices become vulnerable to malware attacks with the enormous amount of data on IoT devices; as a result, malware detection becomes a major problem in IoT devices. A reliable and effective mechanism is essential for malware detection. In recent years, research workers have developed various techniques for the complex detection of malware, but accurate detection continues to be a problem. Ransomware attacks pose major security risks to corporate and personal information and data. The owners of computer-based resources can be influenced by monetary losses, reputational damage, and privacy and verification violations due to successful assaults of ransomware. Therefore, there is a need to swiftly and accurately detect the ransomware. With this motivation, the study designs an Ebola optimization search algorithm for enhanced deep learning-based ransomware detection (EBSAEDL-RD) technique in IoT security. The purpose of the EBSAEDL-RD method is to recognize and classify the ransomware to achieve security in the IoT platform. To accomplish this, the EBSAEDL-RD technique employs min-max normalization to scale the input data into a useful format. Also, the EBSAEDL-RD technique makes use of the EBSA technique to select an optimum set of features. Meanwhile, the classification of ransomware takes place using the bidirectional gated recurrent unit (BiGRU) model. Then, the sparrow search algorithm (SSA) can be applied for optimum hyperparameter selection of the BiGRU model. The wide-ranging experiments of the EBSAEDL-RD approach are performed on benchmark data. The obtained results highlighted that the EBSAEDL-RD algorithm reaches better performance over other models on IoT security.</p> </abstract>

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices has introduced significant challenges in cybersecurity, particularly in the realm of intrusion detection. While effective, traditional centralized machine learning approaches often compromise data privacy and scalability due to the need for data aggregation. In this study, we propose a federated learning framework for near-real-time intrusion detection in IoT environments. Federated learning enables decentralized model training across multiple devices without exchanging raw data, thereby preserving privacy and reducing communication overhead. Our approach builds upon a previously proposed hybrid model, which combines a machine learning model deployed on IoT devices with a second-level cloud-based analysis. This previous work required all data to be passed to the cloud in aggregate form, limiting security. We extend this model to incorporate federated learning, allowing for distributed training while maintaining high accuracy and privacy. We evaluate the performance of our federated-learning-based model against a traditional centralized model, focusing on accuracy retention, training efficiency, and privacy preservation. Our experiments utilize actual attack data partitioned across multiple nodes. The results demonstrate that this hybrid federated learning not only offers significant advantages in terms of data privacy and scalability but also retains the previous competitive accuracy. This paper also explores the integration of federated learning with cloud-based infrastructure, leveraging platforms such as Databricks and Google Cloud Storage. We discuss the challenges and benefits of implementing federated learning in a distributed environment, including the use of Apache Spark and MLlib for scalable model training. The results show that all the algorithms used maintain an excellent identification accuracy (98% for logistic R=regression, 97% for SVM, and 100% for Random Forest). We also report a very short training time (less than 11 s on a single machine). The previous very low application time is also confirmed (0.16 s for over 1,697,851 packets). Our findings highlight the potential of federated learning as a viable solution for enhancing cybersecurity in IoT ecosystems, paving the way for further research in privacy-preserving machine learning techniques.

With the advancement of 5G mobile telecommunication, various IoT (Internet of Things) devices communicate massive amounts of data by being connected to wireless networks. Since this wireless communication is vulnerable to hackers via data leakage during communication, the transmitted data should be encrypted through block ciphers to protect the data during communication. In addition, in order to encrypt the massive amounts of data securely, it is essential to apply one of secure mode of operation. Among them, CTR (CounTeR) mode is the most widely used in industrial applications. However, these IoT devices have limited resources of computing and memory compared to typical computers, so that it is challenging to process cryptographic algorithms that have computation-intensive tasks in IoT devices at high speed. Thus, it is required that cryptographic algorithms are optimized in IoT devices. In other words, optimizing cryptographic operations on these IoT devices is not only basic but also an essential effort in order to build secure IoT-based service systems. For efficient encryption on IoT devices, even though several ARX (Add-Rotate-XOR)-based ciphers have been proposed, it still necessary to improve the performance of encryption for smooth and secure IoT services. In this article, we propose the first parallel implementations of CTR mode of ARX-based ciphers: LEA (Lightweight Encryption Algorithm), HIGHT (high security and light weight), and revised CHAM on the ARMv8 platform, a popular microcontroller in various IoT applications. For the parallel implementation, we propose an efficient data parallelism technique and register scheduling, which maximizes the usage of vector registers. Through proposed techniques, we process the maximum amount of encryption simultaneously by utilizing all vector registers. Namely, in the case of HIGHT and revised CHAM-64/128 (resp. LEA, revised CHAM-128/128, and CHAM-128/256), we can execute 48 (resp. 24) encryptions simultaneously. In addition, we optimize the process of CTR mode by pre-computing and using the intermediate value of some initial rounds by utilizing the property that the nonce part of CTR mode input is fixed during encryptions. Through the pre-computation table, CTR mode is optimized up until round 4 in LEA, round 5 in HIGHT, and round 7 in revised CHAM. With the proposed parallel processing technique, our software provides 3.09%, 5.26%, and 9.52% of improved performance in LEA, HIGHT, and revised CHAM-64/128, respectively, compared to the existing parallel works in ARM-based MCU. Furthermore, with the proposed CTR mode optimization technique, our software provides the most improved performance with 8.76%, 8.62%, and 15.87% in LEA-CTR, HIGHT-CTR, and revised CHAM-CTR, respectively. This work is the fastest implementation of CTR mode on ARMv8 architecture to the best of our knowledge.

In the modern security-conscious world, Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) proxies are increasingly often used on industrial and enterprise networks to perform TLS unwrapping on all outbound connections. However, enabling TLS unwrapping requires local devices to have the DPI proxy Certificate Authority certificates installed. While for conventional computing devices this is addressed via enterprise management, it's a difficult problem for Internet of Things (IoT) devices which are generally not under enterprise management, and may not even be capable of it due to their resource-constrained nature. Thus, for typical IoT devices, being installed on a network with DPI requires either manual device configuration or custom DPI proxy configuration, both of which solutions have significant shortcomings. This poses a serious challenge to the deployment of IoT devices on DPI-enabled intranets. The authors propose a solution to this problem: a method of installing on IoT devices the CA certificates for DPI proxy CAs, as well as other security configuration (security bootstrapping). The proposed solution respects the DPI policies, while allowing the commissioning of IoT and IIoT devices without the need for additional manual configuration either at device scope or at network scope. This is accomplished by performing the bootstrap operation over unsecured connection, and downloading certificates using TLS validation at application level. The resulting solution is light-weight and secure, yet does not require validation of the DPI proxy's CA certificates in order to perform the security bootstrapping, thus avoiding the chicken-and-egg problem inherent in using TLS on DPI-enabled intranets.

A paradigm that combines cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) allows for more impressive services to be provided to users while addressing storage and computational resource issues in the IoT environments. This cloud-based IoT environment has been used in various industries, including public services, for quite some time, and has been researched in academia. However, various security issues can arise during the communication between IoT devices and cloud servers, because communication between devices occurs in open channels. Moreover, issues such as theft of a user's IoT device or extraction of key parameters from the user's device in a remote location can arise. Researchers interested in these issues have proposed lightweight mutual authentication key agreement protocols that are safe and suitable for IoT environments. Recently, a lightweight authentication scheme between IoT devices and cloud servers has been presented. However, we found out their scheme had various security vulnerabilities, vulnerable to insider, impersonation, verification table leakage, and privileged insider attacks, and did not provide users with untraceability. To address these flaws, we propose a provably secure lightweight authentication scheme. The proposed scheme uses the user's biometric information and the cloud server's secret key to prevent the exposure of key parameters. Additionally, it ensures low computational costs for providing users with real-time and fast services using only exclusive OR operations and hash functions in the IoT environments. To analyze the safety of the proposed scheme, we use informal security analysis, Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic and a Real-or-Random (RoR) model. The analysis results confirm that our scheme is secure against insider attacks, impersonation attacks, stolen verifier attacks, and so on; furthermore, it provides additional security elements. Simultaneously, it has been verified to possess enhanced communication costs, and total bit size has been shortened to 3776 bits, which is improved by almost 6% compared to Wu et al.'s scheme. Therefore, we demonstrate that the proposed scheme is suitable for cloud-based IoT environments.