Matovu Davis et al.; International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology © 2019, www.IJARIIT.com All Rights Reserved Page | 1432 ISSN: 2454-132X Impact factor: 4.295 (Volume 5, Issue 2) Available online at: www.ijariit.com The Internet of Things: applications and security metrics with the Ugandan perspective Davis Matovu davismatovu@yahoo.com Busitema University, Busia, Uganda Mugeni Gilbert B. gbmugeni@gmail.com Communication Authority of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya Karume Simon smkarume@gmail.com Laikipia University, Eldoret, Kenya Mutua Stephen stephen.makau@gmail.com Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kakamega, Kenya Gilbert Gilibrays Ocen gilbertocen@gmail.com Busitema University, Busia, Uganda ABSTRACT As the Internet of Things (IoT) increasingly becomes a reality, thousands of devices get connected to IoT platforms in smart cities and regions. These devices will actively send data updates to cloud-based platforms, as part of smart applications in various domains like healthcare, traffic, and education among others. Therefore, it is important to assess the ability of modern IoT systems to handle high rates of data updates coming from devices. The paper aims at developing metrics that can be used to assess the IoT cybersecurity status of a country in terms of the Intensity, Readiness, and Adoption with a special focus of Uganda as a case study. To achieve this, a design science approach was employed. Data were collected from a sample of 127 respondents from 7 firms around Kampala district. Finally, the impact of the proposed metrics is demonstrated through an application to the IoT assessment model. Keywords— Internet of Things, Cybersecurity, IoT applications, Metrics 1. INTRODUCTION The Internet of Things (IoT; also known as the Internet of Objects) is a system in which the physical world is connected to the Internet through ubiquitous sensors (Victor, 2017). This concept has evolved and extended to several industries and applications over the years, encompassing a vision where networked everyday objects are able to push information, change their state, interact with each other without human intervention and perform actions that affect the physical world (Victor, 2017). Chen at al. (2014) further asserts that the Internet of Things (IoT) is regarded as a technology and economic wave in the global information industry after the Internet. The IoT is an intelligent network which connects all things to the Internet for the purpose of exchanging information and communicating through the information sensing devices in accordance with agreed protocols (Chen at al, 2014). It achieves the goal of intelligent identifying, locating, tracking, monitoring, and managing things. According to Chen at al. (2014), IoT should have the following three characteristics;  Comprehensive Perception: Using RFID, sensors, and two-dimensional barcode to obtain the object information at any time and anywhere, it will be a new opportunity.  Reliable Transmission: Through a variety of available radio networks, telecommunication networks, and the Internet, objects information can be available at any time.  Intelligent Processing: By collecting IoT data into databases, various intelligent computing technologies including cloud computing will be able to support IoT data applications. The network service providers can process tens of millions or even billion pieces of messages instantly through cloud computing. However, as the number of IoT devices continues to increase, so does the number of challenges we face. Security is a big concern since the number of attacks to IoT devices keeps rising. (Bonilla et al, 2017; Teng et al, 2014). It is widely acknowledged that the potential for malicious attacks can and will be greatly spread and actuated from the Internet to the physical word (Teng et al, 2014).