Collective responsibility and mutual coercion in IoT botnets: a tragedy of the commons problem

Adaros Boye, Carolina and Kearney, Paul and Josephs, Mark (2018) Collective responsibility and mutual coercion in IoT botnets: a tragedy of the commons problem. In: International Workshop on Behavioral Analysis for System Security - BASS 2018, 26 to 28 of July, 2018, Porto.

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Abstract

In recent years, several cases of DDoS attacks using IoT botnets have been reported, including the largest DDoS known, caused by the malware Mirai in 2016. The infection of the IoT devices could have been prevented with basic security hygiene, but as the actors responsible to apply these preventative measures are not the main target but just “enablers” of the attack their incentive is little. In most cases they will even be unaware of the situation. Internet, as a common and shared space allows also some costs to be absorbed by the community rather than being a direct consequence suffered by those that behave insecurely. This paper analyses the long term effects of the prevalence of a system where individual decision-making systematically causes net harm. An analogy with “the tragedy of the commons” problem is done under the understanding that rational individuals seek the maximization of their own utility, even when this damages shared resources.
Four areas of solution are proposed based on the review of this problem in different contexts. It was found necessary to include non-technical solutions and consider human behaviour. This opens a discussion about a multidisciplinary focus in IoT cyber security.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Dates:	Date Event 22 June 2018 Accepted 31 December 2018 Published Online
Subjects:	CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-01 - computer science
Divisions:	Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment > College of Computing
Depositing User:	Carolina Adaros Boye
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2018 14:08
Last Modified:	22 Mar 2023 12:01
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/6156