Communal Acts of IoT Consumers: A Potential Threat to Security and Privacy

Consumer Electronics Internet of Things (CEIoT) products, implemented with improper security measures and inadequate privacy-preserving mechanisms, let the hackers or intruders to access and misuse consumer’s personal information. In this paper, we present a framework and perspective to study and address Internet of Things (IoT) consumer’s security and privacy violation from seemingly five different angles; borrow, rent, gift, resale, and retire. In the act of borrow, an IoT consumer takes and uses another consumer’s CEIoT products with the intention of return after usage. In the act of rent, a consumer offers his CEIoT products to other people for temporary usage and charges regular payment for the service. In the act of gift, a consumer willingly gives or presents his used CEIoT products to his friends or relatives without payment. In the act of resale, IoT consumers sell their previously bought or used CEIoT products. In the act of retire, IoT consumers dispose of or throw their used CEIoT products when they become out of service or after the end of product’s life. This act could raise serious privacy concerns, since “IoT waste” may become an attractive gateway for cybercriminals to access private information. Moreover, we also present challenges with the above-mentioned five acts of security and privacy violation. And finally, we suggest some recommendations to preserve the security and privacy of IoT consumers.