Improving the Security of the Three-Tier IoT Cloud Model Using Simon Algorithm and Mutual Authentication

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mohammad shirdel 1
Maghsoud Amiri 2
Mohamad Ali Afshar Kazemi 3
Mohamad Reza Motadel 4
1 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Information Technology , Faculty of Management, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 Prof., Department of Industrial Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataei University, Tehran, Iran
3 Associate Prof., Department of Management, Faculty of Management, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
4 Assistant Prof., Department of Industrial Management, Faculty of Management, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/aimj.2025.512942.1631
Abstract
With the expansion of the number of smart devices and related applications, a significant volume of data is generated, which plays an important role in automating everyday activities. This big data requires fast processing, secure storage, and reliable transmission through secure channels to protect it from malicious threats and attacks. Privacy protection has always been one of the main challenges in cyberspace, and with the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), this challenge has gained wider dimensions. In this paper, an evaluation model based on the three-tier architecture of the Internet of Things, including perception, transmission, and application layers, is presented. Specific performance indicators are defined and applied for each layer. In order to evaluate the system performance, expert opinions are collected and the indicators are prioritized using the fuzzy TOPSIS decision-making method. Also, security models such as Simon lightweight encryption and mutual authentication have been added to each layer separately and their impact on the overall system performance has been analyzed. To implement these algorithms, an STM32F4 microcontroller with an ARM Cortex-M4 processor has been used, which provides adequate processing power and the ability to accurately measure security and performance indicators. The final results show that the proposed model leads to improved security levels and reduced vulnerability to cyber attacks.

Keywords

Alamer, A. (2024). A privacy-preserving federated learning with a secure collaborative for malware detection models using Internet of Things resources. Internet of Things, 25(5), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.IoT.2023.101015
Al-Dulaimy, A., Jansen, M., Johansson, B., Trivedi, A., Iosup, A., Ashjaei, M., ... & Papadopoulos, A. V. (2024). The computing continuum: From IoT to the cloud. Internet of Things, 27, 101272.
Ali, B. & Awad, A. (2018). Cyber and physical security vulnerability assessment for IoT-based smart homes. Journal Sensors, 18(3), 1-17. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18030817
Appel, M., Bossert, A., Cooper, S., Kußmaul, T., Löffler, J., Pauer, C. & Wiesmaier, A. (2016). Block ciphers for the iot–simon, speck, katan, led, tea, present, and sea compared.sProc. Appel Block CF, 1-37. https://tubiblio.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/104856
Arvind, S. & Narayanan, V. A. (2019). An Overview of Security in CoAP: Attack and Analysis. International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Systems (ICACCS), pp. 655–660, https://doi.org/10.1109/ICACCS.2019.8728533
Balogh, S., Gallo, O., Ploszek, R., Spacek, P. & Zajac, P. (2021). IoT Security Challenges: Cloud and Blockchain, Postquantum Cryptography, and Evolutionary Techniques. Electronics, 10(21), 2647. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10212647
Behera, M., Mohapatra, S. K., Samal, U. C., Khan, M. S., Daneshmand, M. & Gandomi, A. H. (2019). Residual energy-based cluster-head selection in wsns for IoT application. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 6, 5132–5139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JIOT. 2019.2897119
Binti Harum, N., Zakaria, N. A., Emran, N. A., Ayop, Z., & Anawar, S. (2019). Smart book reader for visual impairment person using IoT device. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 10(2), 251-255.
Burke, D. (2018). Preventing DDOS Attacks against IoT Devices. PhD Thesis, Utica College.
Canedo, J. & Skjellum, A. (2016). Using machine learning to secure IoT systems. Annual Conference on Privacy, Security and Trust (PST), pp. 219–222, IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/PST.2016.7906930
Chen, J., Touati, C. & Zhu, Q. (2019). Optimal secure two-layer IoT network design. IEEE Transactions on Control of Network Systems. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCNS.2019.2906893
Choi, J., In, Y., Park, C., Seok, S., Seo, H. & Kim, H. (2018). Secure IoT framework and 2D architecture for End-To-End security. Journal of Supercomputing, 74(8), 3521–3535. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11227-016-1684-0
Djenna, A., Harous, S. & Saidouni, D.E. (2021). Internet of Things Meet Internet of Threats: New Concern Cyber Security Issues of Critical Cyber Infrastructure. Applied sciences, 11(10), 4580. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11104580
Dovom, E. M., Azmoodeh, A., Dehghantanha, A., Newton, D. E., Parizi, R. M. & Karimipour, H. (2019). Fuzzy pattern tree for edge malware detection and categorization in IoT. Journal of Systems Architecture, 97,  1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sysarc.2019.01.017
Grassi, P., Garcia, M. & Fenton, J. (2017). DRAFT NIST Special Publication 800-63-3 Digital Identity Guidelines. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Los Altos, CA. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-63-3
Halgamuge, M. N. & Niyato, D. (2025). Adaptive edge security framework for dynamic IoT security policies in diverse environments. Computers & Security, 148(2),17-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2024.104128
Ismail, Sh., Nouman, M., Dawoud, D. W. & Reza. H. (2024).Towards a lightweight security framework using blockchain and machine learning. Blockchain: Research and Applications, 5(1), 1-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bcra.2023.100174
Kamaludeen, N. B. A., Lee, S. P. & Parizi, R. M. (2019, July). Guideline-based approach for IoT home application development. In 2019 international conference on internet of things (iThings) and IEEE green computing and communications (GreenCom) and IEEE cyber, physical and social computing (CPSCom) and IEEE smart data (SmartData) (pp. 929-936). IEEE.
Khan. Y., Su’ud, M.B.M., Alam, M.M., Ahmad, S.F., Salim, N.A. & Khan, N. (2023). Architectural Threats to Security and Privacy: A Challenge for Internet of Things (IoT) Applications. Electronics (Switzerland), 12(1), 88-108. https://doi.org/10.3390/electron ics12010088
Kirikkayis, Y., Winter, M. & Reichert, M. (2024). A User Study on Modeling IoT-Aware Processes with BPMN 2.0. Information 2024, 15, 229.
Krishnamurthy, V., Jothi, S. & Karuppiah, S. V. (2023). HO-DQLN: Hybrid optimization-based deep Q-learning network for optimizing QoS requirements in service oriented model. Expert Systems with Applications. 227(12). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2023.120188
Li, Y., Shi, L., Cheng, P., Chen, J. & Quevedo, D. E. (2015).Jamming Attacks on Remote State Estimation in Cyber-Physical Systems: A Game-Theoretic Approach. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 60(10), 2831–2836. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TAC.2015.2461851
Liu, H., Yang, B. & Liu, T. (2014). Efficient Naming, Addressing and Profile Services in Internet-of-Things Sensory Environments. Ad Hoc Networks, 18, 85–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2013.02.008
Mashal, I., Alsaryrah, O., Chung, TY., Yang, C Z., Kuo, WH. & Agrawal, D. P. (2015). Choices for interaction with things on Internet and underlying issues. Ad Hoc Networks, 28, 68–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2014.12.006
Mazhar, T., Talpur, D. B., Shloul, T. A., Ghadi, Y.Y., Haq, I., Ullah, I., Ouahada, K. & Hamam, H. (2023). Analysis of IoT Security Challenges and Its Solutions Using Artificial Intelligence. Brain Sci., 13, 683. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13040683
Ngu, H., Gutierrez, M., Metsis, V., Nepal, S. & Sheng, Q. Z. (2016). IoT Middleware: A Survey on Issues and Enabling Technologies,” IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2016.2615180
Paranjothi, A., Tanik, U., Wang, Y. & Khan, M. S. (2019). Hybrid-vehfog: A robust approach for reliable dissemination of critical messages in connected vehicles. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, 30(6), 35-55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ett.3595
Puthal, D., Nepal, S., Ranjan, R. & Chen, J. (2016). Threats to networking cloud and edge datacenters in the Internet of Things. IEEE Cloud Computing, 3(3), 64–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MCC.2016.63
Qi, P., Chiaro, D. & Piccialli, F. (2025). Small models, big impact: A review on the power of lightweight Federated Learning. Future Generation Computer Systems, 16, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2024.107484
Ray, P P. (2018). A Survey on Internet of Things Architectures. Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences, 30, 291– 319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2016.10.003
Ren, J., Guo, H., Xu, C. & Zhang, Y. (2017). Serving at the edge: A scalable IoT architecture based on transparent computing. IEEE Network, 31(5), 96–105. https://doi.org/10.1109/MNET.2017.1700030
Said, O. & Masud, M. (2013). Towards internet of things: survey and future vision. International Journal of Computer Networks, 5(1), 1–17. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297141894
Sakhnini, J., Karimipour, H., Dehghantanha, A., Parizi, R. M. & Srivastava, G. (2019). Security aspects of internet of things aided smart grids: A bibliometric survey. Internet of Things, 14, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.IoT.2019.100111
Salah, Kh. & Khan, M. (2018). IoT Security: Review, Blockchain Solutions, and Open Challenges. Future Generation Computer Systems, 82, 395–411. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.future.2017.11.022
Santos, J., Rodrigues, J. J., Silva, B. M., Casal, J., Saleem, K. & Denisov, V. (2016). An IoT-Based Mobile Gateway for Intelligent Personal Assistants on Mobile Health Environments. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 71, 194–204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2016.03.014
Sethi, M., Arkko, J. & Keränen, A. (2017). End-to-End Security for Sleepy Smart Object Networks. Annual IEEE Conference on Local Computer Networks-Workshops, pp. 964–972. https://doi.org/10.1109/LCNW.2012.6424089
Sethi, P., & Sarangi, S. R. (2017). Internet of things: architectures, protocols, and applications. Journal of electrical and computer engineering, 2017(1), 9324035.
Srivastava, G., Parizi, R. M., Dehghantanha, A. & Choo, K.-K. R. (2019). Data sharing and privacy for patient IoT devices using blockchain. Smart City and Informatization, (iSCI 2019), pp 334–348.
Taherdoost, H. (2023). Security and Internet of Things: Benefits, Challenges, and Future Perspectives. Electronics, 12, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12081901
Wang, D., Ming, J., Chen, T., Zhang, X. & Wang, C. (2018). Cracking IoT Device User Account via Brute-force Attack to SMS Authentication Code. In Proceedings of the First Workshop on Radical and Experiential Security, pp. 57–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3203422.3203426
Wang, H., Wang, Y., & Jin, J. (2024). Application of multimodality perception scene construction based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology in art teaching. PeerJ Computer Science, 10, e2047.
Wu, M., Lu, TJ., Ling, FY., Sun, J. & Du, HY. (2010). Research on the architecture of internet of things,” 3rd International Conference on Advanced Computer Theory and Engineering (ICACTE), 5, 483–507. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICACTE.2010.5579493
Yang, Y., Wu, L., Yin, G., Li, L. & Zhao, H. (2017). A survey on security and privacy issues in Internet-of-Things. IEEE Internet Things, 4, 1250–1258. https://doi: 10.1109/JIOT.2017.2694844
Zarca, A. M., Bernal Bernabe, J., Farris, I., Khettab, Y., Taleb, T. & Skarmeta, A. (2018).Enhancing IoT security through network softwarization and virtual security appliances. International Journal of Network Management, 28(5), 20-38. https://doi.org/10.1002/nem.2038
Zhang, W., Meng, Y., Liu, Y., Zhang, X., Zhang, Y. & Zhu, H.( 2018). Homonit: Monitoring Smart Home Apps from Encrypted Traffic. ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 1074–1088, ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3243734.3243820

  • Receive Date 17 March 2025
  • Revise Date 30 July 2025
  • Accept Date 17 August 2025