We All Have an Endpoint Responsibility

By 2025, there will be 80 billion devices worldwide connecting to the Internet of Things (IoT). That’s the equivalent of 152,000 devices connecting every minute.

These connections will push the number of endpoints into the trillions.

Our cars, homes and offices will be equipped with IoT gateways. With all these devices (and embedded sensors) exchanging information, the amount of digital data will balloon to 180 zettabytes.

Information will be everywhere.

In addition to the ubiquity of information, the nature of the workforce has also changed. Whether they are working remotely from a hotel room, at a coffee shop, commuting to work or in the office, your employees are always “on”—sharing information, Wi-Fi jumping, toggling between apps or posting on social media.

Wherever your employees go, if their device has a signal or an address, it can be found or exploited.

Employees—Always “On,” Always Connected

A day in the life of the modern workforce is technologically complex.

Globalization necessitates that digital assets and resources, once secure behind firewalls, need to be made accessible to a distributed workforce. This information extends to an ecosystem made up of suppliers, distributors, logistics providers and other partners. Information is extended across firewalls, networks and borders.

These endpoints can expose confidential information contained in nuclear power plant designs, an employee’s personnel file or the software program that a developer is writing to control an autonomous car.

While we will have greater capabilities to collect this data, analyze it for insights and create a range of new services based on it, an increase in connections means that more endpoints, identities and data will need to be protected.

As the size and complexity of endpoint environments grow, we all have a responsibility to protect the endpoints.

Just as every company will become an information company, every company needs to be a security expert in the digital economy. The enterprise has a responsibility to protect intelligent endpoints, whether they are medical devices, engines, sensors, laptops or mobile phones.

OpenText EIM Secures Epic Endpoints

The OpenText EIM platform integrates multi-level, multi-role, multi-context security into its intelligent information core, enabling organizations in every industry to manage and protect their epic endpoints.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) “wraps” a security layer around connected devices, helping to ensure the appropriate level of access to resources across virtually any combination of internal or external systems.

Endpoint solutions integrate into existing IT infrastructures and operating centers to help organizations protect data, comply with regulations and perform discovery when required. Information forensics can be completed on a laptop or a mobile device. Data from drones or security cameras can be collected to complete video inspections or pipeline analysis. The solution works across fleets as well—buses, cars, planes or trains. Organizations in the transport industry are connecting the flow of IoT information from component parts (like brake systems) into the EIM platform’s intelligent and connected core.

As part of our EIM platform, IAM performs over 100 million authorizations every month, protecting 22.5 million customer devices. It collects information, monitors behavior, sends notifications and uses advanced analytics and machine learning to detect abnormalities and feed them into our AI platform Magellan for detection, resolution and learning.

EIM secures intelligent endpoints. It helps organizations all over the world to manage data, IP and the explosion of digital identities associated with connected technologies.

If you like this series, you will enjoy my latest book, The Intelligent and Connected Enterprise.

How do you think changes in mobility, the IoT and the “bring your own device” (BYOD) trend are impacting endpoint security?