A fuzzy ontology-based context-aware encryption approach in IoT through device and information classification

IoT devices produce a vast amount of data ranging from personal to sensitive information. Usually, these devices remain connected to the internet so protecting the information produced by them is crucial. Since most of the IoT devices are resource-constrained, they must be supported with lightweight encryption standards to protect information. Recent research has used the concept of context awareness to select the most suitable data encryption standard based on the device resources along with the required information confidentiality level. However, to effectively use the context information, it is required to be organized explicitly while considering the dynamic nature of IoT systems. In this regard, ontology-based systems effectively reduce the volume of manual work while recommending solutions. Currently, these systems cannot work with precision due to multiple uncertain factors of IoT sensory data. To overcome this challenge, this research proposes a fuzzy ontology-based context-aware system to protect IoT device information with the help of an encryption algorithm that considers device capabilities and user priorities regarding the data confidentiality. In order to automate the recommendation process, Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) rules and fuzzy logic are used, whereas, Description Logic and RDF Query Language is used to evaluate the results. The evaluation results confirm that the proposed method can produce results according to human perception by significantly increasing the accuracy of prediction.