Security and Privacy in IoT-Based Systems

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Networks".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2025 | Viewed by 596

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
ICT-Convergence Research Center, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gumi 39177, Republic of Korea
Interests: artificial intelligence (AI) application to the Internet of Things (IoT) and industrial IoT; supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and industrial control system (ICS) for intrusion/anomaly detection; cyber-security; fault detection; XAI and manufacturing execution systems

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Guest Editor
Networked Systems Lab, IT Convergence Engineering, Kumoh National Institute of Technology, Gumi, Gyeongbuk 39177, Republic of Korea
Interests: cnn; dataset; emergency detection; human-centered; IoT; machine learning; smart factory
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Computer and Information Security, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea
Interests: fog computing; network protocol; internet of things; privacy; network security

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies expand to various sectors, they enable enhanced connectivity, real-time operations, and data-driven decision making. This proliferation introduces significant security and privacy challenges, mainly due to IoT devices' decentralized and resource-constrained nature. Disruptive technologies promise the enhancement of the security and privacy of IoT-based systems by introducing innovative solutions, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, edge computing, quantum cryptography, zero trust architecture (ZTA), homomorphic encryption, and fog computing to address the unique challenges of interconnected devices. The proposed Special Issue on "Security and Privacy in IoT-Based Systems" seeks to address these critical concerns by soliciting original research and review articles that explore innovative solutions and methodologies to safeguard IoT environments. Multidisciplinary research findings addressing the security and privacy of interconnected networks and devices are also welcomed. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, secure IoT communication protocols, privacy-preserving techniques, intrusion detection systems, blockchain-based IoT security frameworks, and XAI on AI-driven approaches for threat detection and mitigation. The issue aims to provide a comprehensive platform for discussing the latest advancements in securing IoT infrastructures against emerging threats and ensuring data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This Special Issue will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers striving to enhance the security and privacy of IoT-based systems in various domains, including smart cities, healthcare, industrial automation, and beyond.

Topics of interest include but not limited to:

  1. Security architectures for IoT.
  2. Privacy-preserving mechanisms.
  3. Privacy challenges in smart homes and cities.
  4. Blockchain-based security.
  5. Lightweight cryptography for IoT devices.
  6. Secure communication protocols.
  7. AI and machine learning for IoT security.
  8. End-to-end security in IoT Architectures.
  9. IoT Device Authentication and authorization.
  10. Data encryption and integrity.
  11. Secure firmware and software updates in IoT devices.
  12. Threat modeling and risk assessment in IoT.
  13. Threat/intrusion detection and mitigation.
  14. Authentication and access control.
  15. Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.
  16. Secure IoT applications.
  17. Emerging threats and solutions.
  18. Explainable AI techniques for IoT data analysis and decision making.
  19. Industry use cases, success stories, reviews and best practices.
  20. Regulatory and compliance Issues in IoT security.

We welcome submissions that present novel research findings, practical implementations, and theoretical insights related to the security and privacy of IoT-based systems. All submissions will undergo rigorous peer review process to ensure high quality and relevance to the themes of the Special Issue.

Dr. Love Allen Chijioke Ahakonye
Dr. Cosmas Ifeanyi Ifeanyi Nwakanma
Dr. Lewis Nkenyereye
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • IoT security
  • privacy-preserving IoT
  • blockchain for IoT
  • lightweight cryptography intrusion detection
  • secure IoT communication
  • end-to-end IoT security
  • device authentication
  • IoT data encryption
  • firmware security
  • risk assessment
  • critical infrastructure security
  • smart home privacy
  • regulatory compliance
  • intrusion detection
  • artificial internet of things (AIoT)
  • smart environments
  • generative AI
  • digital twin
  • machine learning
  • smart agriculture
  • smart factory and manufacturing
  • smart home
  • smart city

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

31 pages, 3849 KiB  
Article
SAFEL-IoT: Secure Adaptive Federated Learning with Explainability for Anomaly Detection in 6G-Enabled Smart Industry 5.0
by Mohammed Naif Alatawi
Electronics 2025, 14(11), 2153; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14112153 - 26 May 2025
Viewed by 256
Abstract
The rise of 6G-enabled smart industries necessitates secure, adaptive, and interpretable anomaly detection frameworks capable of operating under dynamic, adversarial, and resource-constrained environments. This study presents SAFEL-IoT, a novel Secure Adaptive Federated Learning framework with integrated explainability, specifically designed for anomaly detection in [...] Read more.
The rise of 6G-enabled smart industries necessitates secure, adaptive, and interpretable anomaly detection frameworks capable of operating under dynamic, adversarial, and resource-constrained environments. This study presents SAFEL-IoT, a novel Secure Adaptive Federated Learning framework with integrated explainability, specifically designed for anomaly detection in Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) systems under Industry 5.0 paradigms. SAFEL-IoT introduces a dynamic aggregation mechanism based on temporal model divergence, a hybrid encryption scheme combining partial homomorphic encryption with differential privacy, and an interpretable anomaly scoring pipeline leveraging SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) values and temporal attention mechanisms. Extensive experimentation on the SKAB industrial dataset demonstrates that SAFEL-IoT achieves a superior F1 score of 0.93, reduces training time to 63.7 s, and maintains explanation fidelity with only a 0.15 explanation error. Communication efficiency is improved by 70.3% through 6G network slicing, while detection latency remains below 12 ms across 100 distributed edge clients. Further analysis shows a 41.7% improvement in drift robustness and a 68.9% reduction in false positives compared to traditional federated learning baselines. Theoretical convergence guarantees, scalability under large node deployments, and resilience against adversarial attacks validate SAFEL-IoT as a comprehensive and practical solution for secure, explainable, and scalable anomaly detection in next-generation industrial ecosystems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Privacy in IoT-Based Systems)
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