INTERNET OF THINGS GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORKS: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a “buzz word”, growing into an industry that is predicted to be worth $11 trillion by 2025. IoT devices are equipped with sensors that enable them to collect, transmit and process large volumes of data about their surroundings over the Internet, often without human intervention. Hence, these devices are often referred to as “smart” devices and are reported to bridge the gap between digital and physical worlds. The heterogeneity of the devices in the IoT and the volumes of data involved introduce inherent risk to any network housing such devices. A major concern is that ninety percent of the offerings currently in existence to address IoT related risk are repackaged general-purpose information technology (IT) security technologies, which unfortunately do not adequately address the IoT needs. Moreover, it is reported that the IoT requires new architectures and protocols compared to traditional computer networks, introducing a requirement for new standards, models and frameworks, not currently in existence to address several areas of the IoT. To this end, this article motivates towards the requirement of an IoT governance framework instead of traditional IT governance (ITG) frameworks. The authors of this article intended to explore the state of published literature on IoT governance frameworks. The objective was to establish whether IoT governance frameworks currently exist. Through a systematic literature review, it was established that scholars widely agree on the need for an IoT governance framework, however, one is currently not in existence. Therefore, considerations from the literature were presented as components to be included in an IoT governance framework. Limitations of this study were that technical works were not considered as the study focused on governance and not management.

Keywords: Internet of Things; IoT Governance; IT Governance; Heterogeneous Systems