IoT based Smart Home Security Education using a Hands-on Approach

IoT (Internet of Things) devices are expected to be installed in most smart homes. However, these devices can pose huge risks to consumers' privacy and security. As a consequence, there is a raising interest from the security research and professional communities into the field of IoT based smart home security. For academia, the inclusion of IoT security in information security curricula is therefore considered a valuable extension. However, there are no available educational publications discussing approaches for teaching IoT based smart home security. To contribute to fill the aforementioned void in security education, a set of comprehensive hands-on lab exercises that are essential to smart home security education are proposed in this paper. The exercises allow students to better anatomize smart home security using a hands-on approach. The lab exercises are designed to accompany and compliment any existing trade or academic press text. Anonymous questionnaires were administrated to students to evaluate their self-assessment of acquired skills and identify their overall satisfaction level about the offered hands-on lab activities.