Collective Responsibility and Mutual Coercion in IoT Botnets - A Tragedy of the Commons Problem.
2018
In recent years, several cases of DDoS attacks using IoT botnets have been reported, including the largest
DDoS known, caused by the malware Mirai in 2016. The infection of the IoT devices could have been
prevented with basic security hygiene, but as the actors responsible to apply these preventative measures are
not the main target but just “enablers” of the attack their incentive is little. In most cases they will even be
unaware of the situation. Internet, as a common and shared space allows also some costs to be absorbed by
the community rather than being a direct consequence suffered by those that behave insecurely. This paper
analyses the long term effects of the prevalence of a system where individual decision-making systematically
causes net harm. An analogy with “the tragedy of the commons” problem is done under the understanding
that rational individuals seek the maximization of their own utility, even when this damages shared resources.
Four areas of solution are proposed based on the review of this problem in different contexts. It was found
necessary to include non-technical solutions and consider human behaviour. This opens a discussion about a
multidisciplinary focus in IoT cyber security.
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