Categorisation of security threats for smart home appliances

Abstract

IoT (Internet of Things) refers to the daily use of devices connected to the Internet that can be controlled by a remote device such as mobile phones. This research focuses to identify and categorize the threats and create threat vectors for IoT based home appliances. Some previous research has been conducted by OWASP to identify IoT device threats, but these studies have not clearly mentioned what devices were tested and what their vulnerabilities were. Smart televisions, home theatres, refrigerators, CCTV, thermostats, kettles and light/bulbs were selected for testing and examined to identify attacking surface and vulnerabilities. More than 15 attack surfaces and 11 vulnerabilities were found across these devices after conducting the current research. Possible basic security measures have been discussed, which can be implemented by the user and developer to make smart devices safer.