Preparing for the Internet of Things

Industrial control systems that run everything from utilities to factories now combine formerly walled o� operational technology and IT in new IoT-based solutions, potentially exposing fundamental infrastructure to threats that could shut down cities or harm citizens.

Connected vehicles stream the latest information and entertainment, but could fall victim to hacker attempts to reprogram vehicle electronics, compromising passenger safety or damaging automaker brands.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (“drones”) play increasingly prominent roles in modern life, but their wireless IoT connections are vulnerable to attack, allowing hackers to hijack them for malicious purposes.

Connected retail provides more insights than ever into consumer behaviors, but it also opens up massive new amounts of customer data to attacks.

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Source

Gartner, Forecast: The Internet of Things, Worldwide, 2013. 18 November 2013G002591

Engineer “trust” into connected products by applying secure by design principles throughout a product’s development.

Adopt a new operational mindset that focuses on continuously monitoring the company’s operational and security health.

Develop contextualized threat models that incorporate business goals, underlying technical infrastructure and potential business threats.

Apply mobile and cyber/physical system (CPS) security lessons, which can provide valuable insights.

Adopt “privacy by design” (PbD) principles, such as co-locating access and authorization rights with relevant data sets.

Understand and use emerging standards.

Continue to educate system users on key threats such as sophisticated phishing and social engineering attacks.

The “Internet of Things” (IoT) links intelligent machines, sensors and analytics online to form a productivity-enhancing revolution. By 2020, Gartner says it will connect 26 billion devices (excluding PCs, smartphones and tablets).1 The IoT is already under attack, and the following four scenarios highlight the security challenge:

Securing the IoT will require companies to adopt new ways of thinking to defend themselves and their customers against malicious attackers and privacy abuses. Methods include: