Security in Collective Adaptive Systems: A Roadmap

Abstract

Collective adaptive systems are collections of autonomous, possibly heterogeneous devices which cooperate towards a common goal. This class of systems is often proposed as a way to engineer complex distributed systems, with applications ranging from the Internet of Things and smart cities, to swarm robotics. To the best of our knowledge, however, security issues are often overlooked or mixed with safety concerns. In this paper, we look at the current work in security for collective adaptive systems. By viewing the most fundamental security patterns and principles through the lens of collective adaptive systems, we identify the most prominent challenges and differences with respect to traditional security methods, paving the way to more in-depth analysis to be carried on in future works.