Security middleware approaches and issues for ubiquitous applications

Recently, ubiquitous computing and pervasive environments evolved tremendously and became an integral part of many fields and application domains. This is widely attributed to their seamless integration with many everyday components and efficiency in handling business and personal tasks. As a result, technologies to facilitate their development, integration and security also evolved. Middleware is an essential layer in the architecture of these new systems, and recently, more emphasis has been put on security middleware as an enabling component for ubiquitous applications. This is due to the high levels of personal and private data sharing in these systems. In this paper, we review some representative security middleware approaches and highlight their various properties, characteristics, and challenges. The review reveals that several options are available; however, there are still many issues and challenges to be addressed to achieve more efficient security middleware.