Mitigating security threats in fog computing for IoT-enabled smart cities

Abstract

In the midst of rising urbanization and advancements in technology, Smart Cities have emerged as a crucial response to the complexities associated with urban living. A significant contribution to the development of automated smart cities has come from the fusion of fog-based IoT technologies. This integration facilitates instantaneous data processing, optimization of resources, and improved citizen services. Nevertheless, as these systems get more complex and interconnected, they become subject to many security threats. This thesis examines the major security issues introduced by Fog Computing in Smart Cities. Fog Computing is an extension of cloud capabilities to the edge of the network infrastructure, resulting in enhanced data privacy, decreased latency, and new risks that will require additional investigation and mitigation. This study begins by by providing a thorough explanation of the fundamental concepts of smart cities, as well as how IoT and fog computing are used in their development, making it easier to understand how interconnected they are. Subsequently, this paper investigates the security vulnerabilities that threaten the use of fog computing with IoT-based Smart Cities, with a particular motif on the potential vulnerabilities pertaining to infringements of data privacy, unauthorized access, network congestion, and associated apprehensions such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, the dissemination of malware, and physical manipulation. These strategies encompass resilient authentication mechanisms, encryption protocols, and intrusion detection systems. Finally, this thesis analyzes the security vulnerabilities associated with Fog Computing in IoT-based Smart Cities and introduces solutions for proactive approaches to protect these revolutionary urban ecosystems' integrity, privacy, and resilience.