How secure is home: assessing human susceptibility to IoT threats

The use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices within the home has become more popular in recent years and with the COVID-19 pandemic more employees are working from home. Risk management has become decentralised, which is problematic for organisations since potential risks towards the company can not be controlled in a standardised and formal way. On the other side, users are suffering from smart home attacks due to the nature of IoT such as its heterogeneity and non-standardised architecture. However, the behaviour and attitudes of the user can dictate the increase or decrease of risk and possible losses due to the end user’s responsibility within the IoT life cycle. In this paper, we suggest that a user’s behaviour and attitude towards IoT devices within the smart home is imperative when designing a risk model for the home. We then consider the human element in the risk assessment process in IoT. We present a Smart Home Behaviour and Attitude Risk Model (SH-BARM) to discuss the importance of human behaviour and attitudes within the home and propose a solution to that will aid smart home inhabitants and organisations