Security Layer for Modular Hardware Edge Node in the Internet of Things

Internet of Things (IoT) has grown massively over the last years. The forecast is that more than 20 billion of devices will be deployed around the world by 2020. IoT devices are everywhere gathering data and sensing the physical world. They can collaborate towards a common goal by producing and consuming services. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are the connection between the physical world and the cloud. They are the great data gatherers of the IoT. WSN nodes are very resource-limited devices, and usually, they are unattended resulting in poor security, which is a big issue nowadays. WSNs are made up of different elements so, to be able to design proper security, it is a must to analyze the system to find weaknesses and to know the most common attacks and methods to break it. Then, it is also recommended to be aware of the motivations of the attackers. The final step is to implement the different countermeasures to the security issues detected in the system. In this paper, a hardware approach for increasing IoT security in the edge is presented, based on a modular platform that allows to include or not new features depending on the specific application