{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]],"date-time":"2026-03-26T16:08:45Z","timestamp":1774541325294,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"16","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,10]],"date-time":"2024-08-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1723248000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Intentional electromagnetic interference attacks (e.g., jamming) against wireless connected devices such as the Internet of Things (IoT) remain a serious challenge, especially as such attacks evolve in complexity. Similarly, eavesdropping on wireless communication channels persists as an inherent vulnerability that is often exploited by adversaries. This article investigates a novel approach to enhancing information security for IoT systems via collaborative strategies that can effectively mitigate attacks targeting availability via interference and confidentiality via eavesdropping. We examine the proposed approach for two use cases. First, we consider an IoT device that experiences an interference attack, causing wireless channel outages and hindering access to transmitted IoT data. A physical-layer-based security (PLS) transmission strategy is proposed in this article to maintain target levels of information availability for devices targeted by adversarial interference. In the proposed strategy, select IoT devices leverage a cooperative transmission approach to mitigate the IoT signal outages under active interference attacks. Second, we consider the case of information confidentiality for IoT devices as they communicate over wireless channels with possible eavesdroppers. In this case, we propose a collaborative transmission strategy where IoT devices create a signal outage for the eavesdropper, preventing it from decoding the signal of the targeted devices. The analytical and numerical results of this article illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed transmission strategy in achieving desired IoT security levels with respect to availability and confidentiality for both use cases.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s24165171","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,12]],"date-time":"2024-08-12T11:23:46Z","timestamp":1723461826000},"page":"5171","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["A Physical-Layer Security Cooperative Framework for Mitigating Interference and Eavesdropping Attacks in Internet of Things Environments"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0068-6773","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abdallah","family":"Farraj","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University-Texarkana\/RELLIS Campus, Bryan, TX 77807, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6069-1550","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eman","family":"Hammad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution Department, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Statista Research Department (2024, June 29). Number of Internet of Things (IoT) Connections Worldwide from 2022 to 2023, with Forecasts from 2024 to 2033. Available online: https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1183457\/iot-connected-devices-worldwide\/."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1747","DOI":"10.1109\/JPROC.2015.2466548","article-title":"Physical-Layer Security in the Internet of Things: Sensing and Communication Confidentiality Under Resource Constraints","volume":"103","author":"Mukherjee","year":"2015","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gelgi, M., Guan, Y., Arunachala, S., Samba Siva Rao, M., and Dragoni, N. (2024). Systematic Literature Review of IoT Botnet DDOS Attacks and Evaluation of Detection Techniques. Sensors, 24.","DOI":"10.3390\/s24113571"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"Husar, A. (2024, June 29). IoT Security: 5 Cyber-Attacks Caused by IoT Security Vulnerabilities. Available online: https:\/\/www.cm-alliance.com\/cybersecurity-blog\/iot-security-5-cyber-attacks-caused-by-iot-security-vulnerabilities."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"19","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1618130114","article-title":"Wireless physical layer security","volume":"114","author":"Poor","year":"2017","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.001.1900716","article-title":"Energy-and cost-efficient physical layer security in the era of IoT: The role of interference","volume":"58","author":"Wei","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Line Larrivaud (2024, June 29). State of Enterprise IoT Security in North America: Unmanaged and Unsecured; A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned By Armis Inc. Available online: https:\/\/info.armis.com\/rs\/645-PDC-047\/images\/State-Of-Enterprise-IoT-Security-Unmanaged-And-Unsecured.pdf."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alvi, A.N., Ali, B., Saleh, M.S., Alkhathami, M., Alsadie, D., and Alghamdi, B. (2024). Secure Computing for Fog-Enabled Industrial IoT. Sensors, 24.","DOI":"10.3390\/s24072098"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ahakonye, L.A.C., Nwakanma, C.I., and Kim, D.S. (2024). Tides of Blockchain in IoT Cybersecurity. Sensors, 24.","DOI":"10.3390\/s24103111"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ullah, F., Turab, A., Ullah, S., Cacciagrano, D., and Zhao, Y. (2024). Enhanced Network Intrusion Detection System for Internet of Things Security Using Multimodal Big Data Representation with Transfer Learning and Game Theory. Sensors, 24.","DOI":"10.3390\/s24134152"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rahaman, M., Lin, C.Y., Pappachan, P., Gupta, B.B., and Hsu, C.H. (2024). Privacy-Centric AI and IoT Solutions for Smart Rural Farm Monitoring and Control. Sensors, 24.","DOI":"10.3390\/s24134157"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, Y., Tang, Y., Li, C., Zhang, H., and Ahmad, H. (2024). Post-Quantum Secure Identity-Based Signature Scheme with Lattice Assumption for Internet of Things Networks. Sensors, 24.","DOI":"10.3390\/s24134188"},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Hammad, E., McLaren, C., and Leiden, J. (2024, January 10\u201312). Demystifying Cybersecurity Experiential Learning for Operational Technologies (OT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS). Proceedings of the 2024 ASEE-GSW, Canyon, TX, USA."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Al-Obaidi, K.M., Hossain, M., Alduais, N.A., Al-Duais, H.S., Omrany, H., and Ghaffarianhoseini, A. (2022). A review of using IoT for energy efficient buildings and cities: A built environment perspective. Energies, 15.","DOI":"10.3390\/en15165991"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e4055","DOI":"10.1002\/ett.4055","article-title":"A review of industrial wireless communications, challenges, and solutions: A cognitive radio approach","volume":"31","author":"Oyewobi","year":"2020","journal-title":"Trans. Emerg. Telecommun. Technol."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"161","DOI":"10.1016\/j.matpr.2021.05.067","article-title":"A review paper on wireless sensor network techniques in Internet of Things (IoT)","volume":"51","author":"Gulati","year":"2022","journal-title":"Mater. Today Proc."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"933","DOI":"10.1007\/s11277-013-1331-5","article-title":"Switched-Diversity Approach for Cognitive Scheduling","volume":"74","author":"Farraj","year":"2014","journal-title":"Wirel. Pers. Commun."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dutta, A., and Hammad, E. (2020, January 10\u201312). 5G Security Challenges and Opportunities: A System Approach. Proceedings of the IEEE 3rd 5G World Forum (5GWF), Bangalore, India.","DOI":"10.1109\/5GWF49715.2020.9221122"},{"key":"ref_19","unstructured":"Antonakakis, M., April, T., Bailey, M., Bernhard, M., Bursztein, E., Cochran, J., Durumeric, Z., Halderman, J.A., Invernizzi, L., and Kallitsis, M. (2017, January 16\u201318). Understanding the Mirai Botnet. Proceedings of the USENIX Security Symposium, Vancouver, BC, Canada."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hammad, E., and Farraj, A. (2021, January 12\u201317). A Physical-Layer Security Approach for IoT Against Jamming Interference Attacks. Proceedings of the IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE), Virtual Event.","DOI":"10.1109\/CCECE53047.2021.9569143"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Farraj, A., and Hammad, E. (2021, January 12\u201317). A Game-Theoretic Approach for Uncoordinated Access to Cognitive Resources. Proceedings of the IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE), Virtual Event.","DOI":"10.1109\/CCECE53047.2021.9569107"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"673","DOI":"10.1007\/s11277-012-0606-6","article-title":"Impact of Quality of Service Constraints on the Performance of Spectrum Sharing Cognitive Users","volume":"69","author":"Farraj","year":"2013","journal-title":"Wirel. Pers. Commun."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ma, C.Y., Rao, N.S., and Yau, D.K. (2011, January 10\u201315). A Game Theoretic Study of Attack and Defense in Cyber-Physical Systems. Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), Shanghai, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/INFCOMW.2011.5928904"},{"key":"ref_24","first-page":"41","article-title":"Game Theory Based Network Security","volume":"1","author":"Luo","year":"2010","journal-title":"J. Inf. Secur."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhu, Q., and Ba\u015far, T. (2012, January 17\u201318). A Dynamic Game-Theoretic Approach to Resilient Control System Design for Cascading Failures. Proceedings of the International conference on High Confidence Networked Systems, Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1145\/2185505.2185512"},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2662","DOI":"10.1109\/TIFS.2019.2905759","article-title":"Physical layer security in wireless sensor networks using distributed co-phasing","volume":"14","author":"Chopra","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Inf. Forensics Secur."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"812","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2018.2862350","article-title":"A survey on emerging SDN and NFV security mechanisms for IoT systems","volume":"21","author":"Farris","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Varga, P., Peto, J., Franko, A., Balla, D., Haja, D., Janky, F., Soos, G., Ficzere, D., Maliosz, M., and Toka, L. (2020). 5G support for Industrial IoT Applications\u2014Challenges, Solutions, and Research gaps. Sensors, 20.","DOI":"10.3390\/s20030828"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5401","DOI":"10.1109\/TII.2019.2961659","article-title":"Cooperative-evolution-based WPT resource allocation for large-scale cognitive industrial IoT","volume":"16","author":"Sun","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Ind. Inf."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2019.2943900","article-title":"Physical-layer security in space information networks: A survey","volume":"7","author":"Li","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8169","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2019.2927379","article-title":"Physical-layer security of 5G wireless networks for IoT: Challenges and opportunities","volume":"6","author":"Wang","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Zhou, X., Song, L., and Zhang, Y. (2013). Physical Layer Security in Wireless Communications, CRC Press."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"347","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2016.2598968","article-title":"Physical layer security for next generation wireless networks: Theories, technologies, and challenges","volume":"19","author":"Liu","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutorials"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Soni, A., Upadhyay, R., and Jain, A. (2017). Internet of Things and wireless physical layer security: A survey. Computer Communication, Networking and Internet Security, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-981-10-3226-4_11"},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Rojas, P., Alahmadi, S., and Bayoumi, M. (July, January 14). Physical layer security for IoT communications\u2014A survey. Proceedings of the 7th World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT), New Orleans, LA, USA."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pecorella, T., Brilli, L., and Mucchi, L. (2016). The role of physical layer security in IoT: A novel perspective. Information, 7.","DOI":"10.3390\/info7030049"},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"54508","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2019.2913438","article-title":"Enhancing Information Security via Physical Layer Approaches in Heterogeneous IoT With Multiple Access Mobile Edge Computing in Smart City","volume":"7","author":"Wang","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9001","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2020.3001597","article-title":"Physical-Layer Authentication for Internet of Things via WFRFT-Based Gaussian Tag Embedding","volume":"7","author":"Zhang","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3233","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2023.3296368","article-title":"Achieving Covertness and Secrecy: The Interplay between Detection and Eavesdropping Attacks","volume":"11","author":"Wu","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10786","DOI":"10.1109\/JIOT.2019.2941873","article-title":"Beamforming Design for Physical Layer Security in a Two-Way Cognitive Radio IoT Network With SWIPT","volume":"6","author":"Deng","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Internet Things J."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chorti, A., Perlaza, S.M., Han, Z., and Poor, H.V. (2012, January 3\u20137). Physical Layer Security in Wireless Networks with Passive and Active Eavesdroppers. Proceedings of the IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Anaheim, CA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/GLOCOM.2012.6503890"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.1109\/OJVT.2022.3183218","article-title":"Towards a Unified Framework for Physical Layer Security in 5G and Beyond Networks","volume":"3","author":"Solaija","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Open J. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"575","DOI":"10.1007\/s11277-011-0469-2","article-title":"Performance of Primary Users in Spectrum Sharing Cognitive Radio Environment","volume":"68","author":"Farraj","year":"2013","journal-title":"Wirel. Pers. Commun."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/24\/16\/5171\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T15:34:36Z","timestamp":1760110476000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/24\/16\/5171"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,10]]},"references-count":43,"journal-issue":{"issue":"16","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8]]}},"alternative-id":["s24165171"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s24165171","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,10]]}}}