How to Build a Business-Ready Internet of Things: Security

IoT in enterprises is a necessity and reality which will soon overpower all other uses of IoT around the globe. While this sounds exciting and may well turn out to be revolutionary, it is important to keep in mind that security has not been the most stringent as of now given the scale in which IoT operates. If public memory is not short, and then it must know how there have been historically important DDoS attacks that have brought networks to a standstill.

Given that IoT is also about sensitive data, letting the data roam free in the vast world of internet can surely wreck your business prospects as one single DDoS attack can literally cripple multiple networks precisely because of such connected nature. Hence, the complexity of the security issue that IoT generates needs to be addressed immediately.

What are the prime concerns?

Of course, security is a blanket term under which there are few major concerns like privacy and integrity of data, device and app’s encryption, security features available for firmware and chip etc. In fact, your home devices, which you call smart, may make you look like a fool if you come to know how vulnerable they are to a simple DDoS attack.

Various enterprises are working towards ensuring the fact that such attacks can be prevented. Phillips, Qualcomm are some of the biggest names that are trying to integrate robust security features into the world of IoT through their devices and hardware. In fact, Qualcomm’s commitment to security has been exemplary given how they have invested in the security of hardware through strategies like secure boot etc.

Layering the security measures

IoT security is not simply a plugging in process where attaching some tools or providing some aspects will solve the issue. Rather, security has to be installed from the core, or from the moment of manufacture itself. ARM, for example, is investing in ensuring the security of their silicon chips for years now. Same is the case for Intel. However, it is a very complicated process and the fast emergence of IoT has made it problematic to address the issue. It is not simply switching some security features on.

Recently, the release of Open Trust Protocol can be considered as a watershed event where IoT data integrity and device management becomes easier, more so because of its open architecture nature. So, once such layers are created and chips are secured alongside data and apps that use them from a software level, IoT security will start becoming a reality as end-to-end protection will be possible. It is a classic holistic approach towards security where it cuts across industries ranging from software to semiconductor, cloud services to telecommunication providers. To recognize that the IoT system features them all is necessary to build a secure network.

Starting from the end

If you want to understand what IoT security is all about or how it should be, experts often recommend to examine from the data. The data begins its journey from that point and once you star tracking it, you understand the threats that exist in various layers. However, there are innumerable endpoints like this and often, this is extremely complex, especially when one of the points has human intervention. It is here converged IoT has come up where IoT devices come with customized security profiles.

Such a technology combines devices, cloud, sensors and drivers as a part of the IoT hardware and software and ensures that a homogeneous security measure can be taken up at the hardware level. So, in this process, you start with a hybrid endpoint so that all sorts of security measures can be integrated into it and that will allow an easier security profiling for the rest. Of course, IoT is spreading rapidly and companies are trying to make the most of it by adapting. However, without frameworks like threat intelligence, vulnerability testing etc. companies will easily fall prey to greater forces.