The Internet Of Things : a new threat surface
Joe Shenouda
Head of Cyber Defense @ Transavia a.i. | CIO & Co-Founder FenxLabs | Member of Cybermeister
It's 2015 and while there have been some incidents here and there, the Internet of Things has not yet caused major problems for 'smart cities' or companies. And it's almost certain, you WILL have a dozen of IOT devices or so within 5 years in your home. However, you might have picked up that most cyber security researchers are ringing the alarm bell for a while and are pointing towards a catastrophe to happen if IOT security is not taken seriously.
In 2020, IDC has predicted that there will be 200 billion internet-connected devices in the world in use at the same time. Because now, in 2015, we only have 5 billion internet-connected devices, a huge threat surface is being created that is asking for secure designing, regulation and control.
IOT risks don't only come from printers, smart TV's or wearables. Tomorrow, everything in your household will have a WiFi-chip and will be connected to the internet, for some purpose. Your fridge for example will tell you what it has and when it will expire. And there are 100 more example that could be given. The key is: will living in a comfortable smart home in the future be up against the security risk that is poses?
Smart homes will be attacked if no attention is given to security from the start. Your central heating will be hijacked and turned up (or down). Your wifi-cams in and around your house will be watched. And not only smart homes will be a target: your smart car and your smart 'wearable' are a hot target as well.
When people realize that they need to protect themselves, it's sadly too late. So here is my recommendation to everyone: please make sure you are aware of the 'security risks'. If you are, then the manufactures and vendors will take that seriously and will make work of designing secure devices.
Be Safe!
Joe
Senior Manager, Threat Intelligence at CPX
9 年Joe, no word of a lie, https://www.shodan.io/ can already pull/pick out some IoT devices right now.
Computer Science Faculty @ Richland College of DCCCD
9 年When you consider security risk, motivation and possible benefits should be considered. There is more business benefits to IoT than security risk and malicious benefits are scarce or not existent at all. There is not device that can not be hacked, thus IoT is not a concern. Like anything else, if it starts to make money and matures to a common standard, then we'll see some security implementations. My garage door opener can easily be hacked, but why would anyone try it if they can just break my window. Business will drive security not the consumer since the consumer it too blind to even ask for more secure devices.
Enterprise Architect : Requirements Engineer : Systems Integration : Knowledge Operations : Solutions Consultant
9 年unfortunately, cavalier or bolt-on security does not help anyone except the criminal, it needs to be the foundation of invaluable information!