When trust meets the Internet of Vehicles: opportunities, challenges, and future prospects

Recent technological breakthroughs in vehicular ad hoc networks and the Internet of Things (IoT) have transformed vehicles into smart objects thus paving the way for the evolution of the promising paradigm of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), which is an integral constituent of the modern intelligent transportation systems. Simply put, IoV attributes to the IoT-on-wheels, wherein vehicles broadcast safety-critical information among one another (and their immediate ambiences) for guaranteeing highly reliable and efficacious traffic flows. This, therefore, necessitates the need to fully secure an IoV network since a single malicious message is capable enough of jeopardizing the safety of the nearby vehicles (and their respective passengers) and vulnerable pedestrians. It is also pertinent to mention that a malicious attacker, i.e., vehicle, is not only able to send counterfeited safety-critical messages to its nearby vehicles and the traffic management authorities but could further enable a compromised vehicle to broadcast both spoofed coordinates and speed-related information. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that malicious entities and their messages be identified and subsequently eliminated from the network before they are able to manipulate the entire network for their malicious gains. This paper, therefore, delineates on the convergence of the notion of trust with the IoV primarily in terms of its underlying rationale. It further highlights the opportunities which transpire as a result of this convergence to secure an IoV network. Finally, open research challenges, together with the recommendations for addressing the same, have been discussed.