Week 09 · lesson

IoT Security: The Device Is Only One Part of the System

An Internet of Things device is rarely just a gadget.

A connected camera, thermostat, speaker, or doorbell may depend on:

Security failures can happen in any of those layers.

Expand the system boundary

Consider a fictional baby monitor.

The visible device sits in one room, but the full system may be:

camera → Wi-Fi → router → internet → vendor cloud → parent app

If you threat-model only the camera, you miss the account, network, cloud, and update path.

A device that keeps a default password creates unnecessary access risk.

A connected device that cannot receive security updates can remain exposed long after a flaw is known.

A device may collect more audio, video, location, or usage data than the user expects.

A device may be able to communicate with systems it does not need.

If the vendor service fails, the local device may lose important functions.

That is an availability issue even when the home network is working.

Security starts before setup.

For a fictional IoT product, ask:

Choose a fictional smart device and draw:

For every arrow, label:

A connected light bulb usually does not need the same trust as a laptop containing important files.

One defensive idea is to separate lower-trust IoT devices from higher-value systems when the network supports it.

The exact implementation varies, but the architectural idea is simple:

A compromise in one low-trust device should not automatically provide broad access to everything else in the home.

Your teacher provides profiles for:

Score each on:

Then choose which device creates the greatest system-wide risk and defend your answer.

Submit:

Finish with:

The part of an IoT system users are most likely to forget is ________.