A Survey on Cyber Resilience in IoT Networks: Challenges, Mechanisms, and Future Directions

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) across industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and smart cities has made these networks prime targets for cyber attacks. Due to their distributed nature, device diversity, and resource constraints, traditional cyber security solutions alone are insufficient to protect against evolving threats. In addition, the increasing complexity of managing numerous interconnected devices and the limitations of realtime threat detection heighten the risk of cyber breaches. As a result, researchers and engineers are shifting beyond purely defensive cyber security approaches and focusing instead on recoverability and adaptability through cyber resilience mechanisms. The primary objective of cyber resilience in IoT networks is to go beyond conventional protective layers, ensuring long-term sustainability and strengthening resilience against persistent and sophisticated cyber threats. This survey analyses the cyber resilience concept and its steps in IoT networks and outlines challenges in providing cyber resilience in these networks. We review existing definitions of cyber resilience, highlighting their limitations in the IoT context. Also, the relationship between the key security features of IoT networks and cyber resilience is examined. We categorise proposed cyber resilience mechanisms according to their operational layers within the IoT architecture and evaluate them across multiple dimensions, including resilience phases, alignment with IoT requirements, the application domain and employed techniques. Furthermore, this survey examines several directions for future research by highlighting the diverse challenges posed by the various facets of IoT networks within this research domain. The findings of this research contribute to the existing body of knowledge on IoT security and cyber resilience while laying the groundwork for future research and development. Ultimately, this survey seeks to support the development of effective and sustainable strategies to ensure the security and resilience of IoT networks in the face of evolving cyber threats.