System and Method for Implementing Secure Communications for Internet of Things (IOT) Devices

• US 20170201504A1
• Filed: 03/30/2016
• Published: 07/13/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Funk, Tom
• Granted Patent: US 10,412,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0471 applying encryption by an intermediary, e.g. receiving clear information at the intermediary and encrypting the received information at the intermediary before forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/141 Setup of application sessions admission control or resource allocation in data switching networks H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

Novel tools and techniques might provide for implementing secure communications for IoT devices. In various embodiments, a gateway or computing device might provide connectivity between or amongst two or more Internet of Things (“IoT”) capable devices, by establishing an IoT protocol-based, autonomous machine-to-machine communication channel amongst the two or more IoT capable devices. For sensitive and/or private communications, the gateway or computing device might establish a secure off-the-record (“OTR”) communication session within the IoT protocol-based, autonomous machine-to-machine channel, thereby providing encrypted machine-to-machine communications amongst the two or more IoT capable devices, without any content of communications that are exchanged amongst the IoT capable devices over the secure OTR communication session being recorded or logged. In some cases, the secure OTR communication session utilizes cryptographic protocols including, without limitation, one or more of AES symmetric-key algorithm, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, SHA-1 hash function, forward secrecy, deniable authentication, malleable encryption, and/or the like.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing, with a computing device, connectivity between a first device and a second device over at least one network, by establishing an Internet-of-Things (“

IoT”

) protocol-based, machine-to-machine communication channel between the first device and the second device over the at least one network that allows autonomous machine-to-machine communications between the first device and the second device, without any user interaction or any user input during the autonomous machine-to-machine communications; and

establishing, with the computing device, a secure off-the-record (“

OTR”

) communication session within the IoT protocol-based, machine-to-machine communication channel between the first device and the second device over the at least one network, the secure OTR communication session providing encrypted machine-to-machine communications between the first device and the second device, without any content of communications that is exchanged between the first device and the second device over the secure OTR communication session being recorded or logged.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the content of communications that is exchanged between the first device and the second device over the secure OTR communication session comprises at least one of information about the first device, information about the second device, information about a user associated with the first device, information about a user associated with the second device, information about dates or times of the communications exchanged between the first device and the second device over the secure OTR communication session, or one or more of data content, text content, recorded voice content, image content, video content, sensor data content, or instruction content of the communications exchanged between the first device and the second device over the secure OTR communication session.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, with the computing device, whether one or more data packets of the plurality of data packets from the at least one of the first device and the second device contain sensitive information, wherein establishing the secure OTR communication session is based at least in part on a determination that one or more data packets of the plurality of data packets from the at least one of the first device and the second device contain sensitive information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the sensitive information includes at least one of information about a user associated with at least one of the first device or the second device, information associated with a customer premises associated with the user who is associated with the at least one of the first device or the second device, information associated with communications protocols used by one or both of the first device or the second device, or information about other users who are associated with the customer premises associated with the user who is associated with the at least one of the first device or the second device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, with the computing device, an indication from at least one of the first device and the second device that at least one data packet of the plurality of data packets will likely contain sensitive information, wherein establishing the secure OTR communication session is based at least in part on receiving the indication that at least one data packet of the plurality of data packets will likely contain sensitive information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the secure OTR communication session is based at least in part on off-the-record messaging protocol.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the secure OTR communication session utilizes one or more cryptographic protocols or techniques selected from a group consisting of AES symmetric-key algorithm, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, SHA-1 hash function, forward secrecy, deniable authentication, and malleable encryption.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the IoT protocol-based, machine-to-machine communication channel is established using an IoT protocol, wherein the secure OTR communication session is established using an OTR communication protocol, and wherein the OTR communication protocol is part of the IoT protocol.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises a gateway device comprising at least one of an optical network terminal (“

ONT”

), a network interface device (“

NID”

), an enhanced NID (“

eNID”

), a residential gateway (“

RG”

) device, a business gateway (“

BG”

) device, or a virtual gateway (“

vG”

) device, wherein the gateway device is located at or near a customer premises associated with a user who is associated with one of the first device or the second device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device comprises at least one of an optical network terminal (“

ONT”

), a network interface device (“

NID”

), an enhanced NID (“

eNID”

), or a server computer, each of which is controlled by a network service provider.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing device is one of the first device or the second device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device and the second device each comprises one of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a printer, a scanner, a data storage device, a network access point (“

NAP”

), a television, a set-top box, an image capture device, an image projection device, a video capture device, a video projection device, a watch, a clock, a gaming console, a thermostat, a kitchen appliance, a medical device, a vehicle, a speaker, an audio headset, a telephone system, a media recording device, a media playback device, a lighting system, a sensing device, a door locking system, a customer premises security control system, a window locking system, a window covering system, or a sprinkler system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device and the second device are located in proximity to each other.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device and the second device are located at different geographic locations, wherein establishing the secure OTR communication session comprises establishing, with the computing device, a secure OTR communication session between the first device and the second device over the at least one network via one or more intermediary devices.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one network comprises one or more of a local area network (“

LAN”

), a wide area network (“

WAN”

), a wireless wide area network (“

WWAN”

), a virtual private network (“

VPN”

), the Internet, or an extranet.

16. A computing device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the computing device to;

provide connectivity between a first device and a second device over at least one network, by establishing an Internet-of-Things (“

IoT”

) protocol-based, machine-to-machine communication channel between the first device and the second device over the at least one network that allows autonomous machine-to-machine communications between the first device and the second device, without any user interaction or any user input during the autonomous machine-to-machine communications; and

establish a secure off-the-record (“

OTR”

) communication session within the IoT protocol-based, machine-to-machine communication channel between the first device and the second device over the at least one network, the secure OTR communication session providing encrypted machine-to-machine communications between the first device and the second device, without any content of communications that is exchanged between the first device and the second device over the secure OTR communication session being recorded or logged.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the secure OTR communication session is based at least in part on off-the-record messaging protocol.

18. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the secure OTR communication session utilizes one or more cryptographic protocols or techniques selected from a group consisting of AES symmetric-key algorithm, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, SHA-1 hash function, forward secrecy, deniable authentication, and malleable encryption.

19. An Internet-of-Things (“

IoT”

) capable device, comprising;

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer software comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the IoT capable device to;

send information to a second IoT capable device over a secure off-the-record (“

OTR”

) communication session that is established within an IoT protocol-based, machine-to-machine communication channel between the IoT capable device and the second IoT capable device over at least one network, the secure OTR communication session providing encrypted machine-to-machine communications between the IoT capable device and the second IoT capable device, without the information being recorded or logged.

20. The IoT capable device of claim 19, wherein the information comprises at least one of information about the IoT capable device, information about the second IoT capable device, information about a user associated with the IoT capable device, information about a user associated with the second IoT capable device, information about dates or times of the communications exchanged between the IoT capable device and the second IoT capable device over the secure OTR communication session, or one or more of data content, text content, recorded voice content, image content, video content, sensor content, or instruction content of the communications exchanged between the IoT capable device and the second IoT capable device over the secure OTR communication session.

21. The IoT capable device of claim 19, wherein the IoT capable device and the second IoT capable device each comprises one of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a printer, a scanner, a data storage device, a network access point (“

NAP”

), a television, a set-top box, an image capture device, an image projection device, a video capture device, a video projection device, a watch, a clock, a gaming console, a thermostat, a kitchen appliance, a medical device, a vehicle, a speaker, an audio headset, a telephone system, a media recording device, a media playback device, a lighting system, a sensing device, a door locking system, a customer premises security control system, a window locking system, a window covering system, or a sprinkler system.

22. The IoT capable device of claim 19, wherein the secure OTR communication session is based at least in part on off-the-record messaging protocol.

23. The IoT capable device of claim 19, wherein the secure OTR communication session utilizes one or more cryptographic protocols or techniques selected from a group consisting of AES symmetric-key algorithm, Diffie-Hellman key exchange, SHA-1 hash function, forward secrecy, deniable authentication, and malleable encryption.