After looking at what the Internet of Things can look like in practice, we would now like to show you which technological advances have made the Internet of Things possible. Access to cost-effective and energy-saving sensor technology is an essential factor. This made it possible for many manufacturers to work in the IoT environment. In addition, the end products have become cheaper, which means that a larger group of buyers can be addressed.
The increased availability of cloud computing platforms also plays its part in developing the IoT. It enables companies and consumers to access the infrastructures they need to scale up. The administrative effort for the user or the company is kept low.
Products like Alexa also show the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on IoT technology because only AI enables, for example, the processing of natural language, which has had a particularly positive impact on the private sector.
The further spread of the Internet of Things is additionally supported by the expansion of 5G since 5G offers both the required speed and can cope with the steadily increasing volume of data traffic.
Risks Of The Internet Of Things
As previously described, more and more devices are being networked through the Internet of Things. However, this networking creates new security risks.
Problems with securing IoT devices
- The starting point for protection: The fundamental problem is that many lack the starting point for protecting IoT devices. Particularly in the private sector, it is often not known that IoT devices need to be secured. Even if it is known, the specialist knowledge is lacking to protect.
- Lack of update option: In addition, it should be kept in mind that the price for many IoT devices is meager. When it comes to items in the cent range, an update option for security updates is usually not provided in the first place. If the manufacturer does provide this option, it is scarce that the security updates are delivered over the entire lifecycle of the product.
- Classic firewalls are not enough: Even the classic firewall is often not the appropriate solution for securing the IoT network. Because compared to “classic” IT, for example, in production, there is not only traffic from your network to the outside and from outside to your network. There is also data traffic between the individual machines. With this form of communication, the classic perimeter concepts with firewalls no longer apply. Therefore, the data traffic between the devices should also be secured.
- Low computing power: The low computing power of IoT devices is another problem. Therefore, security tools that work on computers cannot be installed in many cases. Patches and updates can usually not be imported without any issues.
- Challenging to determine irregularities in communication: While other technologies use static models to assess deviations from “normal communication,” these models cannot be used for IoT devices due to irregular communication patterns. Because data patterns that are indications of an incident or attack in a conventional IT infrastructure can be completely normal behavior in an IoT infrastructure.
In addition, it should be made aware that security gaps in IoT devices can also give possible hackers access to secured networks. Therefore, you should think about securing them before integrating IoT devices.
How To Secure The IoT
The following measures give you an insight into how you can secure your IoT.
- Developing guidelines: Before IoT devices can even be integrated into your company network, security guidelines should be drawn up. The guidelines should initially refuse everything, and only checked topics are released via the procedure. When creating such policies, it is essential to know for each IoT device which access it needs and what type of data it is transferring.
- Restrict access options: Make it possible to find targeted IoT devices. For this reason, among other things, IoT devices should not have direct access to the Internet. Instead, IoT devices should be placed in separate networks or virtual LANs and should not access critical resources (unless necessary).
- No standard passwords: The botnet used legal login information against more than 500,000 devices. This clearly shows how important it is to use secure passwords for IoT devices.
- Keep up to date: Updates and patches should be installed regularly to keep the devices updated. The manufacturer should not only provide updates and patches but should also be provided with a digital signature. This ensures that the update process is not falsified, and thus damaging files get into your system.
- Engage and train employees: For the process to be complete, you also need to train your employees. During the training, you should provide information about guidelines and measures and explain the actions.
Also Read :Security In Cloud Computing