On the internet of things, trust is relative

Abstract

End-users on the Internet of Things (IoT) will encounter many different devices and services; they will need to decide whether or not they can trust these devices and services with their information. We identify three items of trust information that end-users will need to determine if they should trust something on the IoT. We create a taxonomy of the likely scenarios end-users will encounter on the IoT and present five trust strategies for obtaining this trust information. Upon applying these strategies to our scenarios, we find that there is no strategy that can work efficiently and effectively in every situations; end-users will need to apply the strategy that best fits their current situation. Offering multiple trust strategies in parallel and having this information transparent to end-users will ensure a sustainable IoT. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.