Yes / Welcome to this special issue of the Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS) journal. The special issue compiles seven technical contributions that significantly advance the state-of-the-art in exploration of Internet of Things (IoT) generated big data using semantic web techniques and technologies.

Yes / With the advancement of disruptive new technologies, there has been a considerable focus on personalisation as an important component in nurturing users' engagement. In the context of smart cities, Internet of Things (IoT) offer a unique opportunity to help empower citizens and improve societies' engagement with their governments at both micro and macro levels. This study aims to examine the role of perceived value of IoT in improving citizens' engagement with public services. A survey of 313 citizens in the UK, engaging in various public services, enabled through IoT, found that the perceived value of IoT is strongly influenced by empowerment, perceived usefulness and privacy related issues resulting in significantly affecting their continuous use intentions. The study offers valuable insights into the importance of perceived value of IoT-enabled services, while at the same time, providing an intersectional perspective of UK citizens towards the use of disruptive new technologies in the public sector.

Yes / Technological advancements have been evolving for so long, particularly Internet of Things (IoT) technology that has seen an increase in the number of connected devices surpass non IoT connections. It has unlocked a lot of potential across different organisational settings from healthcare, transportation, smart cities etc. Unfortunately, these advancements also mean that cybercriminals are constantly seeking new ways of exploiting vulnerabilities for malicious and illegal activities. IoT is a technology that presents a golden opportunity for botnet attacks that take advantage of a large number of IoT devices and use them to launch more powerful and sophisticated attacks such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. This calls for more research geared towards the detection and mitigation of botnet attacks in IoT systems. This paper proposes a feature selection approach that identifies and removes less influential features as part of botnet attack detection method. The feature selection is based on the frequency of occurrence of the value counts in each of the features with respect to total instances. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is tested and evaluated on a standard IoT dataset. The results reveal that the proposed feature selection approach has improved the performance of the botnet attack detection method, in terms of True Positive Rate (TPR) and False Positive Rate (FPR). The proposed methodology provides 100% TPR, 0% FPR and 99.9976% F-score.

Yes / Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart agriculture systems are increasingly being used to improve agricultural yield. IoT devices used for agricultural monitoring are often deployed in outdoor environments in remote areas. Due to the exposure to harsh environments and the nature of deployment, sensors and other devices are susceptible to an increased rate of failure, which can take a system to unsafe and dangerous states. Failure of a smart agriculture system can cause significant harm to nature and people and reduce agricultural production. To address the concerns associated with the failure of the system, it is necessary to understand how the failures of the components of a system can contribute to causing the overall system failure. This paper adopts Fault Tree Analysis, a widely used framework for failure behaviour analysis in other safety-critical domains, to demonstrate the qualitative failure analysis of smart irrigation systems based on the components’ failure. / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 10 Dec 2024.

Internet of Things require a continuous power supply for longevity and energy harvesting from ambient sources enable sustainable operation of such embedded devices. Using selfpowered power supply gives raise two scenarios, where there is surplus or scarce harvested energy. In situations where the harvester is capable of harvesting beyond its storage capacity, the surplus energy is wasted. In situations where the harvester does not have sufficient resources, the sparse harvested energy can only transiently power the device. Transiently powered devices, referred to as intermittent computing devices, ensure forward progress by storing checkpoints of the device state at regular intervals. Irrespective of the availability of energy, the device should have adequate security. This thesis addresses the security of energy harvested embedded devices in both energy scenarios. First, we propose precomputation, an optimization technique, that utilizes the surplus energy. We study two cryptographic applications, namely bulk encryption and true random number generation, and we show that precomputing improves energy efficiency and algorithm latency in both applications. Second, we analyze the security pitfalls in transiently powered devices. To secure transiently powered devices, we propose the Secure Intermittent Computing Protocol. The protocol provides continuity to underlying application, atomicity to protocol operations and detects replay and tampering of checkpoints. Both the proposals together provide comprehensive security to self-powered embedded devices. / Master of Science / Internet of Things(IoT) is a collection of interconnected devices which collects data from its surrounding environment. The data collected from these devices enable emerging technologies like smart home and smart cities, where objects are controlled remotely. With the increase in the number of such devices, there is a demand for self-powered devices to conserve electrical energy. Energy harvesters are suitable for this purpose because they convert ambient energy into electrical energy to be stored in an energy buffer, which is to be used when required by the device. Using energy harvesters as power supply presents us with two scenarios. First, when there is sufficient ambient energy, the surplus energy, which is the energy harvested beyond the storage capacity of the buffer, is not consumed by the device and thus, wasted. Second, when the harvested energy is scarce, the device is forced to shutdown due to lack of power. In this thesis, we consider the overall security of an energy harvested IoT device in both energy scenarios. We optimize cryptographic algorithms to utilize the surplus energy and design a secure protocol to protect the device when the energy is scarce. Utilizing both the ideas together provides adequate security to the Internet of Things.

Today the digital evolution is progressing rapidly. This entails both pros and cons concerning the security of devices. Despite the evolution, security has been left in the dark. This results in threats and vulnerabilities in devices, which could potentially be used by a hacker with the purpose of exploiting information. Security has not been a priority in industrial enterprises, even though industrial devices and other networked devices reside on the same network. The evolution of the infrastructure of the Internet has resulted in an increase of cyberattacks. These attacks used to target random individuals. The attacks of today are more intelligent, and hackers have changed their targets to specific enterprises to further exploit sensitive information, damage devices or for financial benefits. Safety in today’s industrial workplaces, such as firewalls, encryption and intrusion detection systems are not specifically designed to work in this type of environment. This leads to new threats and vulnerabilities which further leads to more exploited vulnerabilities. This formulate the following questions: Which are the most occurring threats and vulnerabilities today? What current methods and tools are suited for controlling security in IIoT-networks and its internal industrial devices? The purpose of this thesis was to examine the most occurring threats and vulnerabilities in IIoT-networks and its internal devices and reason among the methods to evaluate security in industrial enterprises. Lastly, an experiment in a real industrial workplace was conducted to attain a nuanced picture of the implementation of finding threats and vulnerabilities in industrial systems. In summary, there are a lot of different threats and vulnerabilities divided into categories and many tools are available to ensure the vulnerability. To conduct a test to find threats and vulnerabilities in an industrial enterprise, it needs to be ethically correct and the consequences carefully considered. The result of this thesis is a mapping and a demonstration of how threats and vulnerabilities are detected in an industrial workplace.

This thesis details the design of a protocol translator between the industrial-automation protocol OPC UA, and HTTP. The design is based on the architecture of the protocol translator of the Arrowhead framework, and is interoperable with all of its associated protocols. The design requirements are defined to comply with a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and RESTful interaction through HTTP, with minimal requirement of the consuming client to be familiar with OPC UA semantics. Effort is put into making translation as transparent as possible, but limits the scope of this work to exclude a complete semantic translation. The solution presented in this thesis satisfies structural- and foundational interoperability, and bridges interaction to be independent of OPC UA services. The resulting translator is capable of accessing the content of any OPC UA server with simple HTTP-requests, where addressing is oriented around OPC UA nodes.

Med begreppet "Internet of Things" menas att ett objekt ur den riktiga världen blir en del av internet. Tunabyggen i Borlänge planerar att implementera ett sådant informationssystem som med hjälp av sensorer och en ständig internetuppkoppling håller uppsikt över temperatur och luftfuktighet i utvalda lokaler. Det är ett enkelt system som till synes inte har så stora effekter på den nuvarande verksamheten. De ekonomiska effekterna går ofta att räkna på i förhand men effekterna på personal, miljö och rutiner kan glömmas bort. Vi har därför med detta examensarbete undersökt vilka inledande effekter som kan tänkas uppkomma efter implementering av ett nytt informationssystem med "Internet of Things" funktionalitet i en verksamhet. Detta sker inom kategorierna ekonomi, arbetsmiljö, miljöpåverkan och systemförvaltning. För att kunna besvara detta har vi gjort en fallstudie baserad på en scenariometodik som består av fyra faser. Fas 1, där vi fick vårt Case och skapade en förståelse för scenariofältet. Fas 2, där vi identifierade nyckelfaktorer. Detta har gjorts genom en litteraturstudie samt intervju med berörd personal på Tunabyggen. Fas 3, där analysen av dessa nyckelfaktorer skedde genom nulägesanalys och framtidsanalys av nyckelfaktorer. Fas 4, där vi genererade scenarier av de analyserade nyckelfaktorerna. Det har sedan gjorts en SWOT-analys för att belysa styrkor, svagheter, möjligheter och hot. Resultatet visar tydliga tecken på att det kommer att bli många effekter för Tunabyggen efter implementering av det nya informationssystemet som yttrar sig i alla kategorier. Slutsatsen är att vid implementation av ett informationssystem som detta är effekterna många. Detta är något som vi anser bör beaktas av alla verksamheter som har tankar på att införskaffa ett nytt informationssystem. De bör inte bara utvärdera informationssystem rent ekonomiskt utan borde ta i beaktning att det finns ett antal andra faktorer som har en avgörande roll om implementation av informationssystem ska bli lyckad. / The term "Internet of Things" refers to when an object from the real world becomes a part of the internet. Tunabyggen in Borlänge plans to implement an information system that will monitor temperature and humidity in selected facilities using a constant internet connection and different sensors. It is a simple system that doesn't seem to have a major impact on the current operations. The economic effects is often possible to calculate in advance, but the impact on staff, environment and routines may be forgotten. We have with this thesis examined the initial effects that may occur after the implementation of a new information system with Internet of Things functionality in a business, within the categories of economy, working environment, environmental impact and system management. To answer this we made a case study which is based on a scenario methodology that consists of four phases. Phase 1, where we got our case and created an understanding of the scenario field. Phase 2, identifying the key factors. It has been done through a literature study and interviews with relevant staff on Tunabyggen. Phase 3, where the analysis of these key factors were made through the situation and future analysis. Phase 4, where we generate scenarios of the analyzed key factors. Finally we have done a SWOT analysis to highlight the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The results clearly show signs that there will be many effects for Tunabyggen after the implementation of the new information system, which manifests itself in all categories. The conclusion is that even the implementation of a menial information system like this one, the impacts are many. This is something that we believe should be considered by all companies that are thinking of acquiring a new system so they do not only evaluate IT-systems in economic terms, but also other factors that play a crucial role for the implementation of an information system to be successful.

Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept that encompasses various objects and methods of communication to exchange information. Today IoT is more a descriptive term of a vision that everything should be connected to the internet. IoT will be fundamental in the future because the concept opens up opportunities for new services and new innovations. All objects will be connected and able to communicate with each other, while they operate in unprotected environments. This later aspect leads to major security challenges. Today, IoT is in great need of standardization and clear architectures that describe how this technology should be implemented and how IoT devices interact with each other in a secure manner. The security challenges are rooted in the technology and how information is acquired and manipulated by this technology. This thesis provides an introduction to what the IoT is and how it can be used as well as some of the threats that IoT may face in regards to information security. In addition, the thesis provides the reader with some suggestions about how to potentially solve the fundamental need for authentication and secure communications. The solutions presented are based on both contemporary solutions and technologies that are under development for the future. Contemporary solutions are based on security protocols such as IPSec and DTLS. These protocols are being used in an environment that extends across the Internet and into a 6LoWPAN network. The proposed authentication solution has been developed based on a public key infrastructure and trust models for certificate management. As future work, the thesis presents several research areas where this thesis can be used as a basis. These specialization areas include further analysis of vulnerabilities and an implementation of the proposed solutions. / Internet of Things (IoT) är ett koncept som omfattar olika objekt och kommunikationsmetoder för utbyte av information. Idag är IoT mer en beskrivande term av den framtidsvision som finns att allting ska vara uppkopplat på internet. IoT kommer vara fundamentalt i framtiden eftersom konceptet öppnar upp möjligheter för nya tjänster samt nya innovationer. Då alla objekt ska vara uppkopplade och kunna kommunicera med varandra samtidigt som de skall kunna operera i oskyddade miljöer, bidrar detta till stora säkerhetsutmaningar. Dagens IoT är i stort behov av standardisering och klara strukturer för hur tekniken ska implementeras samt samverka med varandra på ett säkert sätt.  Utmaningarna ligger i att säkra tekniken samt informationen som tekinken bidrar med. Denna rapport ger en introduktion till vad IoT är och hur det kan användas samt vilka hot som IoT kan möta i avseende till informationssäkerhet. Utöver detta så förser rapporten läsaren med förslag om hur man eventuellt kan lösa de fundamentala behoven av autentisering och säker kommunikation. Lösningarna som läggs fram är baserade på både nutida lösningar och teknik som är under utveckling inför framtiden. Nutida lösningar är baserade på säkerhetsprotokoll som IPsec och DTLS som används i en miljö som sträcker över internet och in i ett 6LoWPAN nätverk. Den autentiseringslösning som tagits fram grundar sig på PKI och förtroendemodeller för certifikathantering. För framtida arbete presenteras flertalet vidare fördjupningsområden där denna rapport kan användas som grund. Dessa fördjupningsområden inkluderar vidare analys av sårbarheter och implementation av de lösningar som tagits fram.

Internet of Things växer fort och förutspås bli en del av vardagen. Detta öppnar möjligheter för att skapa produkter som förenklar vardagslivet. Automatisk objektsidentifiering kombinerad med en automatiserad lagerstatus kan underlätta inventering, något som kan användas till exempel i smarta kylskåp för att göra vardagen enklare genom Internet of Things.Detta examensarbete studerar metoder inom objektsidentifikation för att ta fram ett system som automatiskt kan identifiera objekt och hantera lagerstatus. En prototyp framställdes och testades för att se vilka möjligheter som finns. Systemet använder en Raspberry Pi som basenhet, vilken använder Dlib-bibliotek för att identifiera objekt som har blivit fördefinierade. Vid okända objekt identifierar användaren objekt i en mobilapplikation, systemet kan genom detta lära sig identifiera nya objekt. Samma applikation används för att se lagerstatusen på de olika objekt som har registrerats av systemet. Prototypen klarar av att identifiera kända objekt samt att lära sig nya, enligt projektets mål. / Internet of Things is growing fast and is predicted to become a part of everyday life. This can be used to create products which will make everyday life easier. Automated object detection combined with an automated inventory check can make it easier to manage what is in stock, this is something that can be used in smart refrigerators as an example, to make life more convenient through Internet of Things. This Bachelor thesis studies methods regarding object detection with the purpose to build a system which automatically identifies objects and manages the inventory status. A prototype was built and tested to see what the possibilities there is with such a system. The Prototype uses a Raspberry Pi as core unit, which uses Dlib libraries to identify predefined objects. The user will identify unknown objects via the mobile phone application, which makes it possible for the system to learn how to identify new objects. The same application is used to check the inventory status for the different objects that has been identified by the system. The prototype can identify objects and learn to identify new ones, according to the goals of the project.