A survey of the current state of lightweight cryptography for the Internet of things

Abstract

The Internet of things offers a promising future for all stakeholders in technology; from researchers to consumers. It comprises a network of entities i.e. everyday objects; capable of sensing, processing, storing data and communicating with other entities. These entities or “things” can be connected to the internet and monitored or controlled through a service on another module like a mobile device or computer application. This model of ubiquitous computing presents a great challenge in the form of maintaining security i.e. confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation of data as majority of the devices run on limited resources. Our paper examines the cryptographic solutions that have so far been developed, presents their strengths and weaknesses against each other and lays out some research gaps. We also present some notable institutions and groups that are researching and developing international standards in this field. The authors goal is that this paper is usable by all levels of people in the field, however, the main target audience are the new researchers on the topic and interested readers to get a complete layout of the field.