Protecting IoT: Addressing Connected Device Security
The internet-of-things (IoT) has given us a digitized network of devices and systems that all use the internet to communicate. From the smartphone in your hand to the laptop on your desk and even the industrial equipment you may see on the road, IoT has transformed how most of us lead our professional and personal lives.
But as IoT keeps expanding, its security risks are growing, too. This article will highlight some of the most critical security challenges IoT faces as well as emerging threats like device vulnerabilities and the current state of standardization. We’ll also discuss strategies to secure IoT ecosystems, like device authentication, data encryption and zero-trust approaches.
The State of IoT Security in 2023
The biggest security threat facing IoT users is a fundamental one, and it exists largely due to vendors who scramble to push releases out the door without ensuring they’re compliant with applicable code security standards. IoT devices commonly have unpatched vulnerabilities and give bad actors opportunities to steal data and digital assets. For instance, in March of this year, Chinese company Akuvox released a smart intercom and videophone riddled with multiple zero-day vulnerabilities that allowed bad actors to remotely spy on unwitting users.
Adding to the complicated state of IoT security in 2023 is that many people are unlikely to remediate IoT vulnerabilities. Most people don’t know how to keep their IoT devices up-to-date, giving bad actors easy opportunities to strike. There are also the ever-present threats of default passwords and critical infrastructure attacks that continue to make it challenging to keep IoT protected.
What a Lack of Standardization Means for IoT Security
One of the biggest factors negatively impacting the current state of IoT security is a lack of standardization. Without standardization, IoT systems and devices will struggle to communicate, especially considering that different manufacturers have made them and won’t all be able to adhere to the same unified standard.
You’d think IoT devices would be fundamentally designed to allow for interoperability, right? Unfortunately, the lack of standardization in IoT leads to devices being often incompatible with one another and restricted in their functionality. It’s likely that two devices, for example, would use two different data formats and protocols to communicate with other devices, leading to a standstill on the road toward whatever goal those two devices might have achieved.
What’s arguably worse about IoT’s lack of standardization is the greater potential for security risks; interoperability, functionality and compatibility issues in IoT devices give bad actors a chance to take advantage of a lack of security protocols to exploit system vulnerabilities.
Some Solutions to IoT Security Challenges
IoT’s glaring lack of standardization is currently the biggest security challenge the industry faces. If it’s not, it soon will be as the number of consumer IoT devices, protocols and platforms that communicate via the internet grows even larger. Without IoT device interoperability and compatibility, it will be next to impossible to prevent potentially exploitable vulnerabilities.
Solutions for IoT’s lack of standardization may include defining and adopting standards that apply to interoperability and compatibility. These standards should apply to protecting privacy and security as well as communication protocols IoT devices follow. It’s also imperative that platforms and devices be certified to ensure they’re compliant with current standards and regulations.
There is also the ever-present issue of poor authentication to contend with. Consumer IoT devices are often designed without much security in mind, rendering them easily exploitable. Solutions to weak authentication should include two-factor authentication to prevent unauthorized users from accessing IoT devices. Other solutions, such as secure gateways and PKIs, can effectively address weak or non-existent IoT device authentication.
There is also data encryption to secure IoT ecosystems, which makes sense when multiple devices are on the same network. A VPN router can protect those devices and ensure they connect to the Internet via the same encrypted tunnel. Doing so goes a long way toward strengthening your network security and making your experience over Wi-Fi stress-free and consistent.
Last but not least, there is the matter of employing a zero-trust approach to secure an IoT ecosystem. Through ongoing deployment and use of IoT solutions and devices, it’s become apparent that the best approach to managing and secure everything on the IoT should embrace zero-trust.
Before IoT solutions become secured using the zero-trust model, however, you’ll first need to ensure that you implement the fundamentals and have people’s devices and identities secured and their access limited. Doing so reduces the potential volume of unauthorized users accessing IoT on-premises and in the cloud.
After you’ve met your non-IoT-specific requirements, you can move on to implementing zero-trust for IoT. The strategies of this approach include using a strong identity to authenticate IoT devices, mitigating the potential blast radius from compromised identities with least privilege, building risk profiles by monitoring device health and flagging devices for remediation, and using proactive monitoring to identify and address emerging threats.
The Best Practices for Improving IoT Security
IoT isn’t going anywhere; in fact, the industry will keep evolving and taking on new forms, promoting more complexity and making it increasingly difficult to manage IoT security. Additionally, since IoT devices are inherently vulnerable, it’s almost guaranteed that attacks carried out against IoT devices will continue to rise.
To secure IoT, you should use a tool to automatically and continuously detect and classify IoT devices, establish an inventory of these devices, and obtain risk insights for your different asset classes. It’s important that you follow these industry best practices to better understand and manage all of the assets under your purview.
Conclusion
The advent of the IoT has ushered in plenty of benefits as well as security challenges. Issues like the inherent vulnerability of IoT devices and concerns surrounding data privacy and security can make it difficult to realize the full potential of IoT. However, by following some of the solutions to major IoT security challenges described above, you will become better able to manage and secure your IoT.
