The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm focusing on the connection of devices, objects, or “things” to each other, to the Internet, and to users. IoT technology is anticipated to become an essential requirement in the development of smart homes, as it offers convenience and efficiency to home residents so that they can achieve better quality of life. Application of the IoT model to smart homes, by connecting objects to the Internet, poses new security and privacy challenges in terms of the confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of the data sensed, collected, and exchanged by the IoT objects. These challenges make smart homes extremely vulnerable to different types of security attacks, resulting in IoT-based smart homes being insecure. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the possible security risks to develop a complete picture of the security status of smart homes. This article applies the operationally critical threat, asset, and vulnerability evaluation (OCTAVE) methodology, known as OCTAVE Allegro, to assess the security risks of smart homes. The OCTAVE Allegro method focuses on information assets and considers different information containers such as databases, physical papers, and humans. The key goals of this study are to highlight the various security vulnerabilities of IoT-based smart homes, to present the risks on home inhabitants, and to propose approaches to mitigating the identified risks. The research findings can be used as a foundation for improving the security requirements of IoT-based smart homes.

One of the goals of smart environments is to improve the quality of human life in terms of comfort and efficiency. The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has recently evolved into a technology for building smart environments. Security and privacy are considered key issues in any real-world smart environment based on the IoT model. The security vulnerabilities in IoT-based systems create security threats that affect smart environment applications. Thus, there is a crucial need for intrusion detection systems (IDSs) designed for IoT environments to mitigate IoT-related security attacks that exploit some of these security vulnerabilities. Due to the limited computing and storage capabilities of IoT devices and the specific protocols used, conventional IDSs may not be an option for IoT environments. This article presents a comprehensive survey of the latest IDSs designed for the IoT model, with a focus on the corresponding methods, features, and mechanisms. This article also provides deep insight into the IoT architecture, emerging security vulnerabilities, and their relation to the layers of the IoT architecture. This work demonstrates that despite previous studies regarding the design and implementation of IDSs for the IoT paradigm, developing efficient, reliable and robust IDSs for IoT-based smart environments is still a crucial task. Key considerations for the development of such IDSs are introduced as a future outlook at the end of this survey.

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