Management of identity entails the recognition of an object whereas authentication is the validation of identity and the association between two parties (Maple, 2017). Authentication, within the internet of things, is a crucial aspect since poor authentication protocols would result in lack of integrity and confidentiality and compromised systems. Inferior authentication allows for an adversary to gain access to system’s data by posing as the legitimate user. Consequently, the adversary would be able to restrict the availability of data, delete or modify data, and can view data similar to the way a legitimate user can (Maple, …show more content…
The internet of things has enabled large quantities of data to be collected not only from consumers but from other entities such as organizations, groups, and citizens in general. Tracking the whereabouts of an individual may prove beneficial, in that they improve services, but these benefits need to be weighed against a person’s need for privacy. The internet of things functions in a distributed network with many types of technologies interconnected, and this produces weak links within a system which can be exploited by malicious entities. Weak links may create backdoors for individuals to engage in profiling activities, tracing, tracking, and mass surveillance (Elkhodr, Shahrestani & Cheung, 2016). A study by Hoh, Gruteser, Xiong, and Alrabady (2006) discovered that the presence of GPS systems and mobile devices had rendered anonymity in the present age obsolete. For example, if a person anonymizes their car GPS data, intruders can still infer a person’s location using their mobile