Privacy Challenges in Environmental IoT Systems: A Case Study on Air Quality Monitoring

Environmental monitoring systems are becoming more advanced and affordable, and they have also expanded the possibilities of data collection and analysis due to new technologies of the Internet of Things (IoT). However, these systems often lack robust privacy mechanisms, especially in low-power wide-area networks such as LoRaWAN. Despite the technological advantages, privacy concerns arise due to the potential disclosure of sensitive information, such as location data and user behavior patterns, due to vulnerabilities in data transmission, storage, and access mechanisms. This paper presents a methodological framework for secure data transmission in environmental IoT systems. The proposed model integrates AES-128 in CTR mode, ECDH-based key exchange, and HMAC-SHA256 authentication to ensure end-to-end confidentiality and integrity. The paper proposes principles of a new conceptual model for IoT security based on modern cryptographic approaches. An analysis of the expected effectiveness of the proposed method is presented.