SOS: Empowering User Control over Sensitive IoT Data

Objective
SOS (​Smart Och Säker​) will enable users to securely store data in confidential cloud enclaves as well as automate the interaction between Internet of Things (IoT) devices via provably secure IoT apps. To achieve these goals, SOS will leverage the support for confidential computing in commodity server platforms, thereby providing end-users with a protected execution environment on third-party clouds. Building on these technologies, SOS will also help ensure that data is not unintentionally or maliciously leaked to unauthorized third parties. Finally, to demonstrate feasibility in realistic societal contexts, SOS will focus on two prime domains: telecare and distance education.

Background
Use of cloud-based IoT apps ensures on-demand computing and storage provisioning. However, this comes at the price of ​entrusting potentially sensitive data to ​a range of third-parties that constitute the cloud back-end​: app developers, services running the IoT apps in the cloud​, ​as well as the underlying cloud providers​. The cloud computing paradigm entails further security and privacy concerns as data is often handled by a range of third-party sub processors. Besides operational aspects, the IoT platform operators that process data on cloud premises can be compromised, go bankrupt or be purchased by a competitor, along with all the collected data. Finally, the power of IoT apps can be ​abused by attackers​.

Crossdisciplinary collaboration
The researchers in the team represent the School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, KTH and the Cybersecurity Unit, RISE.

Watch the recorded presentation at Digitalize in Stockholm 2022 event: