The Things in the smart Internet of Things (IoT) depend more on self decision making abilities instead of relying on human interventions. In the IoT, static security mechanisms are not well suited to handle all security risks sufficiently. A security mechanism can be considered static if it is developed with fixed security measures whereas an adaptive security mechanism can be considered dynamic if it can continuously monitor, analyse, and reassess a security risk at runtime. Adaptive security mechanisms can be a better choice to secure dynamic and heterogeneous computing systems in the IoT. This paper presents a patient monitoring scenario using the smart IoT and aims at highlighting all important assets, vulnerabilities, and threats that can harm assets and disrupt eHealth systems. We describe adaptive security and introduce a concept of adaptive security countermeasures for the smart IoT in eHealth.

While the current Internet has brought comforts in our lives, the future of the Internet that is the Internet of Things (IoT) promises to make our daily living even much easier and convenient. The IoT presents a concept of smart world around us, where things are trying to assist and benefit people. Patient monitoring outside the hospital environment is one case for the IoT in healthcare. The healthcare system can get many benefits from the IoT such as patient monitoring with chronic disease, monitoring of elderly people, and monitoring of athletes fitness. However, the comfort may bring along some worries in the form of people’s concerns such as right or wrong actions by things, unauthorised tracking, illegal monitoring, trust relationship, safety, and security. This paper presents the ethical implications of the IoT in eHealth on people and society, and more specifically discusses the ethical issues that may arise due to distinguishing characteristics of the IoT.

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