An Analysis of Home IoT Network Traffic and Behaviour

TL;DR

This paper analyzes network traffic from home IoT devices to understand their behavior, identify privacy and security risks, and evaluate how device actions impact bandwidth, providing insights for better security measures.

Contribution

It introduces methods for fingerprinting IoT device behavior and assesses privacy and security vulnerabilities based on network traffic analysis.

Findings

Identified common patterns in IoT device network traffic

Demonstrated vulnerabilities in device security measures

Showed how device behavior influences bandwidth consumption

Abstract

Internet-connected devices are increasingly present in our homes, and privacy breaches, data thefts, and security threats are becoming commonplace. In order to avoid these, we must first understand the behaviour of these devices. In this work, we analyse network traces from a testbed of common IoT devices, and describe general methods for fingerprinting their behavior. We then use the information and insights derived from this data to assess where privacy and security risks manifest themselves, as well as how device behavior affects bandwidth. We demonstrate simple measures that circumvent attempts at securing devices and protecting privacy.