Dear Reader,
This post is a follow up post from our earlier post on Challenges with IoT security posted last week. If you have not read that we urge you to click here and view it before continuing to read this blog.
Ambimat Electronics with its experience of over 4 decades as an ODM of IoT products wishes to draw the attention of its customers and readers of blog posts towards this neglected field.
Care has been taken to keep the language simple enough for readers with varied experience to understand.
IoT Security is one of the least talked about areas today since the world focuses more and more on Information security, Blockchain, and others.
Difficult to find if a device is affected.
Enterprises have numerous methods of detecting data breaches, which involve spotting common indicators, monitoring user activity, and other security protocols. However, due to the growing number of IoT devices —and the complexities of each device — normal threat dedication methods could be less reliable and more of a challenge. Although it is not really possible to guarantee 100% security from security threats and breaches, the thing with IoT devices is that most of the users don’t get to know if their device is hacked.
When there is a large scale of IoT devices, it becomes difficult to monitor all of them even for the service providers. It is because an IoT device needs apps, services, and protocols for communication. Since the number of devices is increasing significantly, the number of things to be managed is increasing even more.
Hence, many devices keep on operating without the users knowing that they have been hacked.
Security professionals need to be proactive in order to prevent IoT security breaches before they occur. However, some enterprises might lack a robust management system that could monitor activity and provide insights into potential threats. Without this type of solution, an enterprise won’t have the capabilities to spot potential breaches ahead of time.
Data protection and security challenges.
In this interconnected world, the protection of data has become really difficult because it gets transferred between multiple devices within a few seconds. One moment, it is stored in mobile, the next minute it is on the web, and then the cloud.
All this data is transferred or transmitted over the internet, which can lead to data leak. Not all the devices through which data is being transmitted or received are secure. Once the data gets leaked, hackers can sell it to other companies that violate the rights for data privacy and security.
Furthermore, even if the data doesn’t get leaked from the consumer side, the service providers might not be compliant with regulations and laws. This can also lead to security incidents.
Use of autonomous systems for data management.
From a data collection and networking point-of-view, the amount of data generated from connected devices will be too high to handle.
It will undoubtedly need the use of AI tools and automation. IoT admins and network experts will have to set new rules so that traffic patterns can be detected easily.
However, the use of such tools will be a little risky because even a slightest of mistakes while configuring can cause an outage. This is critical for large enterprises in healthcare, financial services, power, and transportation industries.
Small Scale Attacks In IoT
Although security professionals are focused on preventing large scale attacks, it is actually the small scale attacks that could be among the more serious IoT security challenges. Small scale attacks are more difficult to detect and could easily occur without an enterprise being aware of it. Hackers can breach common enterprise technologies such as printers and cameras.
Infrequent Firmware Updates
Software updates are one way that IT professionals ensure that computers and mobile devices are as secure as can be. Some IoT devices may lack the number of software updates that other technologies may receive. In addition, enterprises struggle to provide critical security updates to IoT devices in the field.
IoT Financial-Related Breaches
With some enterprises using IoT devices for electronic payments, there is always a risk for a hacker to breach and steal the money. Some organizations are integrating machine learning or blockchain to stop financial fraud before it happens to an internet-connected device. However, not every organization has tried this solution yet.
Security of autonomous vehicles.
Just like homes and Wide Area Networks, the self-driving vehicles or the ones that make use of IoT services, are also at risk. Smart vehicles can be hijacked by skilled hackers from remote locations. Once they get access, they can control the car, which can be very risky for passengers.
User Privacy
Enterprises must protect user data (that goes for both a company’s external and internal users). This is especially a concern because many workers are using IoT devices provided by their employers. When a breach happens and private data is compromised, an enterprise’s reputation would take a big hit, which is why this is one of the top IoT security challenges that can’t be ignored.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, IoT is a technology that should be called a boon. But since it connects all the things to the Internet, things become vulnerable to some sort of security threats. Big companies and cybersecurity researchers are giving their best to make things perfect for the consumers, but there is still a lot to be done.
About Ambimat Electronics:
With design experience of close to 4 decades of excellence, world-class talent, and innovative breakthroughs, Ambimat Electronics is a single-stop solution enabler to Leading PSUs, private sector companies, and start-ups to deliver design capabilities and develop manufacturing capabilities in various industries and markets. AmbiIoT design services have helped develop Smartwatches, Smart homes, Medicals, Robotics, Retail, Pubs and brewery, Security.
Ambimat Electronics has come a long way to become one of India’s leading IoT(Internet of things) product designers and manufacturers today. We present below some of our solutions that can be implemented and parameterized according to specific business needs. AmbiPay, AmbiPower, AmbiCon, AmbiSecure, AmbiSense, AmbiAutomation.
To know more about us or what Ambimat does, we invite you to follow us on LinkedIn or visit our website.
Sources:
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3258748/the-mirai-botnet-explained-how-teen-scammers-and-cctv-cameras-almost-brought-down-the-internet.html
https://www.enterprisedigi.com/iot/articles/iot-security-challenges
https://readwrite.com/2019/09/05/9-main-security-challenges-for-the-future-of-the-internet-of-things-iot/
https://www.netsparker.com/blog/web-security/the-challenges-of-ensuring-iot-security/
