A survey on approaches to the protection of personal data gathered by IoT devices

Security is always at the forefront of developing technologies. One can seldom go a week without hearing of a new data breach or hacking attempt from various groups around the world, often taking advantage of a simple flaw in a system’s architecture. The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of these developing technologies which may be at risk of such attacks. IoT devices are becoming more and more prevalent in everyday life. From keeping track of an individual’s health, to suggesting meals from items available in an individual’s fridge, these technologies are taking a much larger role in the personal lives of their users. With this in mind, how is security being considered in the development of these technologies? Are these devices that monitor individual’s personal lives just additional vectors for potential data theft? Throughout this survey, various approaches to the development of security systems concerning IoT devices in the home will be discussed, compared, and contrasted in the hope of providing an ideal solution to the problems this technology may produce.