Learning Internet of Things Security "Hands-on"

The Internet of Things (IoT) encompasses a wide range of processes: sensing, computation, communication, time, context, and data, to name only a few. How do all of these function as a system when using commercially available components that can be purchased from anywhere and at a low cost, and with little or no component pedigree available? To provide some practical answers to the these questions, we purchased components and created a set of small use cases to see how it all interoperated. We additionally wanted to ask what this means in terms of security, given many reports warning that IoT often lacks security features. Said another way, what could we glean from buying cheap parts, creating our own use cases with them, and learning how to exploit the vulnerabilities of those off-the shelf parts? The answer is a lot.