Classification of cyber attacks on IoT and ubiquitous computing devices

Abstract: As the Internet of Things (IoT) has become truly ubiquitous, so has the surrounding threat landscape. However, while the security of classical computing systems has significantly matured in the last decades, IoT cybersecurity is still typically low or fully neglected. This paper provides a classification of IoT malware. Major targets and used exploits for attacks are identified and referred to the specific malware. The lack of standard definitions of IoT devices and, therefore, security goals has been identified during this research as a profound barrier in advancing IoT cybersecurity. Furthermore, standardized reporting of IoT malware by trustworthy sources is required in the field. The majority of current IoT attacks continue to be of comparably low effort and level of sophistication and could be mitigated by existing technical measures.