Context-aware device permissioning for hierarchical device collections

A method for Internet of Things (IoT) authentication, comprising:

• establishing a plurality of categories associated with a plurality of IoT devices, wherein at least a first category of the plurality of categories is hierarchical such that the first category includes at least two hierarchical levels, each hierarchical level includes at least two categories, and such that each category in a hierarchical level that is below another hierarchical level is a subset of one of the categories in the hierarchical levels above the hierarchical level;
• establishing user information associated with a plurality of users;
• and
• in response to a request that is associated with a user of the plurality of users and is further associated with access to at least one of the plurality of IoT devices, via at least one processor, selectively granting the access to the at least one of the plurality of IoT devices based upon the established plurality of categories and on the established user information.

A processor-readable storage medium, having stored thereon process-executable code, that, upon execution by at least one processor, enables actions, the actions comprising:

• storing a plurality of context attributes associated with a plurality of IoT devices, wherein the context attributes are associated with the plurality of IoT devices, and wherein at least a first context attribute of the plurality of context attributes is hierarchical such that the first category includes at least two hierarchical levels, each hierarchical level includes at least two categories, and such that each category in a hierarchical level that is below another hierarchical level is a subset of one of the categories in the hierarchical levels above the hierarchical level;
• storing permissions associated with a plurality of users;
• receiving a request associated with a user of the plurality of users and further associated with access to at least one of the plurality of IoT devices;
• and
• in response to the request, selectively granting the access to the at least one of the plurality of IoT devices based on the stored permissions and on the stored plurality of context attributes.