Cybersecurity in Smart Homes

2Smart Home Device Security: A Survey of Smart Home Authentication Methods with a Focus on Mutual Authentication and Key Management Practices

Robinson RAJU and Melody MOH

Department of Computer Science, San Jose State University, USA

2.1. Introduction

The last decade (2000–2010) saw the remarkable inflection point where the number of inanimate things connected to the Internet overshot the world’s population. This happened in 2008 when the number of devices connected to the Internet became greater than the world’s population of around 6.7 billion people (Moh and Raju 2018). In the ensuing decade (2010–2020), the number has not only more than doubled as it crossed 20 billion (Gyarmathy 2020), but the “things” have become smarter.

“IoT” (Internet of Things), “IIoT” (Industrial Internet of Things), “CPS” (Cyber-Physical Systems) are the common terms that are used to describe the ecosystem of these “smart things”. IoT is a network of interconnected computing devices with the ability to transfer data over a network without needing human interaction (Moh and Raju 2018). CPSs are a subset of IoT devices that not only connect to the Internet but also act on the physical environment that they are deployed into. These “smart devices” have become ubiquitous and have pervaded almost every sphere of people’s lives. There are now “smart homes” in which devices in the home connect to the Internet and can provide data to the residents, “smart medical appliances” that not only monitor remotely ...