IoT-Facilitated Intimate Partner Abuse

IoT is an emerging technology that is being implemented into everyday life at a rapid rate. Interconnected devices such as smart home devices are prevalent and are only expected to increase. With this comes new security issues such as technology-facilitated intimate partner abuse (IPA) which is the abuse of a partner through the use of technology. The use of interconnected devices is expected to give rise to such forms of abuse as tech devices are easier to control and monitor than ever. Despite this concern, little research is done on how IoT can be used to instigate IPA. Although there exists technical research on security concerns of IoT and how it can be mitigated, it does not examine the technicality of how a user of the IoT device can misuse it and attack a partner sharing the same device. Some forms of abuse that can take place through IoT are monitoring a partner through video, controlling devices to coerce a partner, and more. Additionally, there is a lack of standards and regulations to mitigate such kind of misuse of technology which makes it difficult to find legal help when faced with it.