Securing things: Human Centred Internet of Things Security

The Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging as a major new paradigm for technology, offering the potential to change the role of technology in our daily lives as physical devices, vehicles, and buildings all become networked. A central concern with IoT is security – with much technical research focused on creating secure protocols and technologies. Yet security, at its heart, comes from the relationships between people, organisations and things – not just technical mechanisms. Accordingly, this project is focused on “humanising” IoT security by providing an understanding of the technical, design, social and political issues that arise when considering IoT systems from a human- centred perspective. What does it mean to feel secure when using IoT systems? How do we design and facilitate secure IoT? Our investigations will take an approach stressing the relationality of IoT infrastructures. We bring together leading researchers from both the human-centred (Implicit group, Stockholm University) and technical sides of IoT (RISE SICS Security Lab).