Itzael Jimenez

The proliferation of IoT devices deployed in homes is increasing because of the utility they can provide. They can give users the facility to perform different tasks just using their smart phones. Users can receive alerts, monitor or change the state of a device. For instance, they can turn on/off lights/appliances, (un)lock padlocks or door locks, monitor environment, and many other actions available for the user depending on the device purpose. However, since IoT devices need to provide ease of implementation, they use discovery protocols, and because of that, they put smart homes at risk to be attacked, even by people without technical knowledge. We performed some empirical studies which have shown us why discovery protocols need to be restricted in a smart home environment. Our research also allowed us to define a threat model to help us to define and propose a possible solution to protect smart homes.