Enhancing Smart Home Security Using Co-Monitoring of IoT Devices

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has improved home security for users at home and away, however, most smart home notification systems fail to recognize whether a user has responded to threats in their home. Allowing multiple users to receive alerts can alleviate this issue, but some smart home owners would prefer to limit access controls to in case of emergency" access. This study explores smart home hub features to co-monitor IoT device access through Role and Event Based Access Control (REBAC), leveraging a device owner's social network, i.e. neighbors and relatives, when homeowners are not available or have failed to respond to a potential threat. Our findings of user studies with two pilot groups demonstrated user's willingness to share access to their smart homes, provided access controls had limited permissions. By adding contextual information of an event to traditional access control models, we were able to create richer permission protocols."