Partially Observable Stochastic Game for Analysing Complex Attacks in IoT Networks

The Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed interactions with the world around us. This technology encompasses a network of connected physical devices often vulnerable to attack. Recently, with billions of devices connected, protecting sensitive data and preventing cyber-attacks are becoming more and more paramount. In this paper, a new technique is proposed to enable the administrator to be aware of the various vulnerabilities threatening his system and to choose the most appropriate remediation method based on his cost constraints. This solution adapts to the specific needs of IoT networks. The approach, AGA-POSG, consists of transforming an IoT network security problem into a finite two-player Partially Observable Stochastic Game (POSG) and extracting the best strategies by Analysing an Attack Graph (AGA). To obtain a good solution, the game is presented in normal form, and the method of eliminating dominated strategies is used to determine the best defense strategies. Efficient security measures were implemented to eliminate or mitigate identified attack paths with costs incurred in the attack graph to the target for each of the two players.