Securing HTTP Communication for Homemade IoT Projects

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a topic in the Computer Science and Engineering field that has rapidly grown in the last couple of years. The popularity of the topic has made different companies to make proprietary IoT devices which can be purchased with ease. Although these devices are very accessible there are many students and professionals in the STEM area that like to create their own IoT devices using tools such as Raspberry Pi [1] and Arduino. Working with these devices in such projects will give students a boost in networking knowledge, but many miss the security part of the project. Using AES encryption to share messages and RSA public key encryption to encrypt the AES key can greatly improve the security of the HTTP communication for these projects as well as improving the student’s knowledge in network security. Key Terms ⎯ DIY, IoT, Network Security, Raspberry Pi.