IoTSec:PopularScience

= Non-scientific presentation of IoTSec = The leading concept of «Security for the Internet of Things - IoTSec» is to develop, extend and apply security and privacy models for IoT, and apply them to the Smart Grids. Though the potential of digital services is overwhelming, we see security and privacy challenges which need to be addresses. Consider an attacker who stops the water supply of a city by switching of the electricity of the pumps, or a hacker who generates an extra key to your home or car by standing in your vicinity and observes the communication between your wireless key. These kind of threats have happened, and have alerted academia and industry to put the focus on security.

We are at the beginning of a new age of business, where dynamic processes and information from sensors systems are the driving forces for business and business collaborations. While today’s Internet-based service world is based on collaborations between entities, the future business will be based on exchange of digital information as a driver for dynamic interaction between entities. Vertical service provision, where sensors deliver information just to one service, will be replaced by a horizontal model, where various applications and services can make use of sensor information provided through the IoT architecture.

Applied to Smart Grid, it means that we will consider a wide range of services being provided to the home, the smart grid supplier and the energy producer. Typical examples of services include the meter reading, the remote control of the home, as well as alarm services and the involvement of children to positively monitor their elderly parents. The power supply grid is vulnerable, both due to varying load, but also due to natural forces like water, ice and storms. Intelligent decisions in the network and at the edge of the network can reduce the vulnerability of the network, and help that basic services like communication are still available.

IoTSec will have two main goals, building a robust research team with academic experts in the area and creating the industrial Security Centre for Smart Grid. UiO, NR, Simula, HiG and UNIK represent the academic partners, while applied research and the centre establishment is taking place at the Norwegian Centre of Expertise (NCE Smart) in collaboration with eSmart Systems, Fredrikstad Energi, EB Nett and Movation. Though having four international partners, we will extend the academic and business network to strengthen our knowledge on security models for IoT.

Regarding the industrial Security Centre for Smart Grid, we expect that digital data open for new products, services and ways of working. Digitalization and its related technologies pushes boundaries for what is possible, but it also pushes boundaries regarding privacy protection. Security is essential to trust for new solutions, and security will therefore become a key factor for success to new solutions. To secure privacy “online” is probably the key to unleash the disruptive power of Big Data analytics and IoT for the vital systems and disciplines such as Smartgrid solutions for the critical energy infrastructure. The Security Centre for Smart Grid is a great need today to address these challenges, and will be a constant need for the next decades. Since the security domain constantly will be challenged, it will be attractive to everyone. We expect the security to be of great need for the entire industry nationally and internationally, and represents a solid business case if it’s become reliable and distinguished as the general security centre for online solutions.

''Our aim is to contribute to a secure and privacy-aware ecosystem for the Internet of Things. If you want to contribute with your industrial requirements, your knowledge or your infrastructure, please contact us for collaboration. Read more ... (about benefits and expectations for collaboration)''