TY - JOUR
T1 - Challenges in detecting security threats in WoT
T2 - a systematic literature review
AU - Sardar, Ruhma
AU - Anees, Tayyaba
AU - Al-Shamayleh, Ahmad Sami
AU - Mehmood, Erum
AU - Khalil, Wajeeha
AU - Akhunzada, Adnan
AU - Shaikh, Fatema Sabeen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
PY - 2025/7
Y1 - 2025/7
N2 - The rapid expansion of the Web of Things (WoT) and the Internet of Things (IoT) has raised security issues, with Denial of Service (DoS) attacks becoming increasingly prevalent. So, the aim of this study is to identify the security concerns in the four architectural layers of the Web of Things, particularly DoS attacks. For this study, existing literature are identified using search queries, and approximately 80 of relevant primary papers published in the recent decade are obtained after a thorough review which helps in addressing our research questions. After finding the relevant primary studies, we applied strict quality evaluation criteria to verify that all studies are evaluated. In addition, a taxonomy of deep learning (DL) techniques is presented on the basis of literature analysis conducted in this research, which is then used to characterize the various security concerns that occur in IoT and WoT systems. The study also examines which DL approaches are used to detect DoS/DDoS attacks in IoT and WoT. Our findings indicate that the optimal form of Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for dealing with DoS attacks is a hybrid IDS, which uses both the signature-based and the anomaly-based IDS. Moreover, DL techniques such as, CNNs and LSTMs, produced excellent results but are still in the development stage in terms of scalability and practical use. This review further highlights the present state of security mechanisms and sets the basis for future research, with an emphasis on refining DL-based techniques and improving the scalability and adaptability of security systems for WoT networks.
AB - The rapid expansion of the Web of Things (WoT) and the Internet of Things (IoT) has raised security issues, with Denial of Service (DoS) attacks becoming increasingly prevalent. So, the aim of this study is to identify the security concerns in the four architectural layers of the Web of Things, particularly DoS attacks. For this study, existing literature are identified using search queries, and approximately 80 of relevant primary papers published in the recent decade are obtained after a thorough review which helps in addressing our research questions. After finding the relevant primary studies, we applied strict quality evaluation criteria to verify that all studies are evaluated. In addition, a taxonomy of deep learning (DL) techniques is presented on the basis of literature analysis conducted in this research, which is then used to characterize the various security concerns that occur in IoT and WoT systems. The study also examines which DL approaches are used to detect DoS/DDoS attacks in IoT and WoT. Our findings indicate that the optimal form of Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for dealing with DoS attacks is a hybrid IDS, which uses both the signature-based and the anomaly-based IDS. Moreover, DL techniques such as, CNNs and LSTMs, produced excellent results but are still in the development stage in terms of scalability and practical use. This review further highlights the present state of security mechanisms and sets the basis for future research, with an emphasis on refining DL-based techniques and improving the scalability and adaptability of security systems for WoT networks.
KW - Artificial intelligence
KW - Deep learning
KW - DoS attacks
KW - Intrusion detection systems
KW - IoT
KW - Security threats
KW - Systematic literature review
KW - WoT
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105002970252
U2 - 10.1007/s10462-025-11176-z
DO - 10.1007/s10462-025-11176-z
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105002970252
SN - 0269-2821
VL - 58
JO - Artificial Intelligence Review
JF - Artificial Intelligence Review
IS - 7
M1 - 196
ER -