The Access of Things

Abstract

Access to resources, both physical and cyber, must be controlled to maintain security. The increasingly connected nature of our world makes access control a paramount issue. The expansion of the Internet of Things into everyday life has created numerous opportunities to share information and resources with other people and other devices. The Internet of Things will contain numerous wireless devices. The level of access each user (human or device) is given must be controlled. Most conventional access control schemes are rigid in that they do not account for environmental context. This solution is not sufficient for the Internet of Things. What is needed is a more granular control of access rights and a gradual degradation or expansion of access based on observed facts. This chapter presents an access control system termed the Access of Things, which employs a gradual degradation of privilege philosophy. The Access of Things concept is applicable to the dynamic security environment present in the Internet of Things.