Are you eagerly waiting to enter the era of smart homes and self-driving cars? There has been a lot of buzz around the Internet of Things (IoT) and connectivity over the past few years, as more and more home appliances gain the ability to connect to the Internet, networks, and mobile devices. Despite the rise and popularity of the connected devices, however, by and large, fully functioning “smart homes” are still a rarity outside of science fiction movies. Why is that? What will it take to fully adopt the IoT into our everyday lives? What are some of the security challenges involved in fully embracing the Internet of Things? We discuss some of those hurdles below.
With everything in place to set off the next tech revolution, it seems odd that it hasn’t kicked off in quite the same way that similar tech booms such as the Internet and mobile devices have.
According to a BI Intelligence report in 2016, connected home devices were supposed to grow by a rate of 67% annually. it’s supposed to have a connected home device growing rate of 67% annually, and the Gartner market research firm expected IoT security spending would reach $1.5 Billion in 2018. These predictions were not far off, but some progress has been obstructed by cyberattacks.
The problem isn’t exactly the lack of adoption of IoT products by firms and consumers as usually happens for new technologies. On the contrary, IoT has massive growth in its adoption rates. However, the security, privacy, and performance concerns are slowing IoT down, due to many structural and inherent reasons that need a lot of time and effort to overcome.
Why is IoT Security Important?
IoT security is the procedure to secure devices and products that are connected to the Internet, networks, or mobile devices. IoT includes widespread electronic technologies and appliances, including almost every device we come into contact with in our everyday life, whether at work or at home. Everything from connected refrigerators that can access the Internet and order groceries to washing machines that text you once your clothes are finished drying.
Many experts consider IoT to be the main challenge for cybersecurity, and on the flipside, cybersecurity is the main challenge for the deployment of IoT. That is due to the many inherent security traps that increase IoTs vulnerability. In fact, some say the Internet of Things security is more challenging than the rest of the cybersecurity challenges combined.
Most who write about IoT security make you feel that IoT is still at the early stage. There is much more that needs to be done for IoT to become secure enough for everyday use. It’s also the biggest hardware security threat because of the rapidly increasing number of IoT devices compared with the number of PCs on the market. In short, IoT is the central “black hole” of emerging technologies.
IoT Security Issues
Typically, if you have read a little about top IoT cybersecurity challenges facing businesses, you will find some important points that are worth contemplating. But in this article, we should put points on letters in more in-depth analyses and solutions for this dilemma.
The most common security challenges the IoT faces include:
- Lack of secure boot process
- Exposed communications port(s)
- Lack of encryption
- Weak default passwords
- Lots of viruses and malware
- Legacy Operating Systems
- Insecure web interface
- Lack of visibility into device security
- Many third-party components
- Unencrypted
- Not enough updates
- Inability and difficulties to detect and identify all IoT devices
If we want to view a more detailed picture, we should also speak about some other security aspects rather than just the above technical issues. There are also many security issues related to awareness and compliance. Other IoT security challenges include:
Lack of awareness in both individuals and organizations that they are using sensitive IoT products, which can affect cybersecurity and privacy more than any conventional IT devices.
Lack of IoT technical skills; most IoT devices are different from conventional IT in the methods of accessing, management, and monitoring.
The difference in availability, efficiency, and effectiveness of IoT devices compared to conventional devices. This creates confusion for implementing additional procedures to respond to risks.
IoT Security and Business
When it comes to the business and manufacturing realm, IoT offers a lot of ways to enhance automation and increase productivity. The same problem, however, exists in these settings as firms and businesses face dangers if they proceed with IoT manufacturing machines and robots. These types of tools are considered the weakest link in the manufacturing security chain.
Unfortunately, the industrial sector will have more obstacles to solve. There are many sensitive industrial sectors that may become entirely exposed to cybersecurity threats like water, electricity, or gas utility companies. If one such critical industry has a small problem, it may result in disaster at the local or even the national level.
IoT Risk Management
Let’s talk about some possible solutions and risk management tactics that can be done in order to enhance the deployment of IoT in business settings. Some studies suggest implementing a linear programming model that was developed recently to make resource allocation decisions for multiple competing IoT security projects.
This linear programming model suggests that organizations should monitor the evolution of IoT technologies to enhance their response to cybersecurity breaches. For instance, when 5G-enabled IoT emerges, cyberattacks will also become more common. Furthermore, managers should make it a priority to increase their knowledge of risk management processes in general and for IoT specifically.
With regards to trying to implement some control and making IoT devices more cyberly secure:
- Take cybersecurity into account from the start, not as an after-thought.
- Strengthen your control over the entire device’s life cycle, including upgrading and operating.
- Take care to have professional support to generate security patches, and avoid free-to-use security software.
Suggested IoT Security Solutions
In terms of implementing technical and compliance solutions for IoT, here are some recommendations:
- Increasing investments in cybersecurity awareness deployment, education, and skills.
- Taking broader and deeper asset inventory; It’s more crucial for enterprise security strategies.
- Scanning for unauthorized and unsecured IoT devices, especially some informal devices of remote workers.
- Extending traffic pattern analysis across the widening network, expanding data, and cloud networks.
- Increasing security risk assessment when moving to the cloud and taking advantage of the benefits of AI-based security tools and IoT software.
- Applying some of the lessons of epidemiology in cybersecurity and learning from nature.
Internet of Things Security
It is quite difficult to summarize such a broad topic in a single article. As you can see, the goal is just to take a quick overview of the most important IoT security concerns, peppering in some suggested solutions to mitigate the dangers. The evidence suggests that it’s worth it for IoT providers to take more attention and to implement better security protocols and standards, either for individual consumers and for industrial sectors.
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