Command Center, Multimedia Integration and Public Security Architecture

Perception Layer Threats:

Physical attack:

IoT asset that lack physical protection are susceptible to theft and damage and can easily to be accessed without authorization. Outdoor devices and  distributed installations must have the appropriate physical controls to prevent physical attack, tampering, and counterfeiting.

Data leaked:

Sensitive information that is not properly encrypted and secure could be read and possible altered. This includes data at rest (stored on the device) and data is transit (moving across a network).

Unauthorized access:

In many IoT devices, default username and password are used of   installation, however if end user do not change from those default, it gives   attackers an easy way to gain access to the device. A similar attack can be successful if the end user creates weak, easily guessed password. Some IoT devices use test and debug ports in the firmware, prior to releasing to the public. If these ports are not closed, it can give an attacker a means for executing code, and potentially taking complete control of the device.

Unauthorized update:

All computers, including all IoT devices, will require security updates and sometime feature update from time to time. These updates are attractive target for attackers by either pretending to be an official update for tricking a user into installing a malicious update, or trying to embed malicious code into valid update. To prevent this, computer and IoT vendor need to have a code verification process to ensure that only valid code from the vendor can run on that hardware. Without this verification, malware installation is possible.

Expired components:

When IoT is manufactured, it is installed with the latest code, however by the time an end user install the device, the code may outdated and require software updates and patches. Unless there is process for automated patching, many IoT devices are left vulnerable to attack that have already been patched by the vendor because the end user did not know, or remember, to manually patch the device regularly.

Malicious software:

If an attacker is successful is gaining access to an IoT device, It is likely that they will install malicious software, or malware, on that system. The type of malware that is typically installed on the IoT devices is called Trojan Horse malware and it gives the attacker a remote control of the IoT device's computing resources. Once the attacker has access to enough devices (thousands, or tens of thousands, or more) the create something called a botnet. The attacker is usually not interested in the data on the IoT device, rather, they want to use the computer in the IoT device as part of their botnet Internet weapon. When the attacker wants to attack a website or anything connected to the Internet, they can tell all of the botnet-infected devices to attack at the same time.

Some famous examples of botnet include Mirai, Bashlite, Lizkebab, Torlus and Gafgyt, to name just a few, which can cause large-scaled distributed Deniel of Services, or DDoS attacks. The Mirai botnet was used to take down and slow down parts of the Internet by infecting IoT devices, including home routers, video surveillance cameras and video recorders.