Abstract

In today’s wired and interconnected world, a sheer number of devices are now able to be connected to the internet and expose the data generated by user inputs or the devices’ built-in sensors. These growing numbers of internet of things (IoT) devices are called smart and they range from mobile phones, smart televisions, IP cameras, household and industrial appliances, to Wi-Fi thermostats and thermometers. The reason for the avalanche of IoT devices is their convenience and remote accessibility over the traditional versions. However, as with other technological breakthroughs, IoT have a major issue regarding the security of access and control of the data generated and hence privacy.

To address these issues, we propose in this paper a system based approach: the system consists of two parts to monitor users’ IoTs. The first aspect of this system is a firewall monitoring and controlling the incoming and outgoing traffic to and from the IoT devices which are connected to the internet via a new generation of routers called Heimdallr. The second aspect is to store locally in this router the user’s IoT related data and allow a secure interaction by the user with the data and the IoTs. A third concept introduced in the system to ensure that any updates to the IoT software is verified and certified by a central not-for-profit organization. Heimdallr would not allow any updates to the software to be made unless the update has been certified by this certification agency. The certification agency has a role similar to CSA [1] or UL [2] organizations which provide testing, inspection and certification service and are involved in setting standards. It is worth pointing out that currently in the software domain, all this is done by the for profit corporation without any public oversight. The only beacon is the open source community where dedicated developers donate their time, talent and energy to produce open source sdedicated developers donate their time, talent and energy to produce open source software which is often free and the source code is accessible to anyone to investigate and verify their algorithms and functions.oftware which is often free and the source code is accessible to anyone to investigate and verify their algorithms and functions.