Detecting poisoning attacks of internet of things (iot) location beacons in wireless local area networks (wlans) with silence periods

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing source code that, when executed by a processor, performs a computer-implemented method in a location server for detecting spoofed location beacons, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a location beacon identifier from a mobile device allegedly within range of a location device transmitting location beacons, along with a timestamp of transmission for each of the location beacons;
• receiving silence periods associated with the location device, during which transmissions of location beacons are temporarily discontinued;
• comparing the location beacon transmission time to the silence periods;
• and
• responsive to the location beacon transmission time corresponding to at least one of the silence periods, flagging the location device as poisoned.