Securing IoT is more challenging than traditional network security due to involvement of a wide range of communication protocols, standards, and device capabilities which works in the favor of hackers and demands a high amount of investment in development of IoT security.
The Internet of Things, where Things refers to a wide variety of objects (e.g. smart bulbs, smart locks, IP cameras, thermostats, electronic appliances, alarm clocks, vending machines etc.). It also includes healthcare, automobiles, entertainments, industrial appliances, sports, homes, etc. All IoT have resemblance – ability to connect to the Internet and exchange data. This feature helps in controlling objects remotely across the network infrastructure, resulting in more integration with the real world and less human intervention.
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“Wide range of IoT devices and hardware profiles limits the ability to have standard encryption processes and protocols resulting in a reduced overall security.”
Navdeep Singh Ahluwalia
Head Network and Information Security
Dalmia Bharat Group
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There is a very rapid growth of Internet-connected devices – ranging from very simple sensors to highly complex cloud servers. The IoT has transformed these objects from being classical to smart by exploiting its underlying technologies such as pervasive computing, communication capabilities, Internet protocols, and applications.
During the recent years the IOT has become the headlines across the Globe. It has facilitated the business like health care, managing city resources, self-driven cars. IoT installed base is increasing at the rate of 15 to 20 percent annually and security continuously remains a major opportunity and a challenge. IoT industry verticals differ in many respects, their security challenges also vary.
Cloud-based IoT framework consists of physical objects and protocols – smart devices such as sensors, actuators; servers acting as a cloud-backend for routing, storing, and accessing various pieces of data; and end-users representing the applications being used to access data and interact with IoT devices. Protocols running on different layers provide end-to-end communication.
There is increase in IoT communication arising from computing devices and embedded sensor systems used in industrial machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, smart energy grids, home and building automation, vehicle to vehicle communication and wearable computing devices. Recent headlines are dominated with security breaches of IOT – like internet-connected screens/TVs can be used to secretly record conversations. The internet connected things may unintentionally cooperate with hackers – a high amount of investment is required in development of IoT security.
Securing IoT is more challenging than traditional network security – reason being involvement of a wide range of communication protocols, standards, and device capabilities. Wide range of IoT devices and hardware profiles limits the ability to have standard encryption processes and protocols resulting in a reduced overall security. Hardware specs of IoT devices limit or prevent their ability to utilize PKI.
Machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data analytics techniques are emerging and being used for more predictive modeling and anomaly detection. API security for IoT is essential for ensuring the security and integrity of the data transiting between edge devices and backend systems.
IoT is affecting our day to day life starting from a small wearable device to large industrial systems. Eight frameworks comprising of rules, protocols and standards have been proposed to simplify the implementation of IoT. The Internet of Things (IoT) plays an important role in our lives and there is no single, magic security bullet that can easily fix all IoT security issues.
