The Internet of Things (IoT) has been one of the foremost technology that has disrupted the data collection and user interaction with technology, even enterprises have hopped on the wagon of IoT to assist the automation decision making. In survey 2018, 70 percent of the enterprises were using the IoT devices in some form or the other to improve the enterprise’s data network. However some of these devices act as a gateway for the cybercriminals to make data breaches, currently, 21 percent of enterprises have reported a data breach due to an unsecured IoT device, we have seen a rise from 16 percent in the last year data. Ensuring security, enterprises have to face the growing trend there will be a major concern that needs to reclassify.  Unfortunately, the security concerns have to be taken with major priorities, some of the concerns for the enterprises arise when it directly affects the revenue other than that it just some department that will handle it. Even many of the enterprises aren’t investing enough in the IoT security, as the current security or data breaches haven’t highlighted the gaping holes in IoT device security.

Here are some of the major techniques that will define the strategy for securing the IoT devices

1. How serious is the risk?

Merritt Maxim, a Forrester Principal analyst with a specialty in security and risk added that the lack of urgency combined with lack awareness will be affecting the complete security solutions for the IoT devices. “Many of the enterprises using the IoT devices, need to evaluate their threats. Some of the threats will be new and not widely known as a threat this deludes the enterprises into thinking that these aren’t the issues they should worry about.”  IoT device security is just like the insurance you got to have it, but you might not use it but the odds are that you might. When the threat comes knocking over everyone’s door you might just be the lucky one with security cover. Despite all flowing threats many of the enterprises are waiting for the things to happen that will be able to secure the devices. Most of the CISOs think that the devices can’t be used as a direct gateway affecting their revenue, they haven’t thought about the strings of connection that can directly affect the complete infrastructure of the devices.

The State of IoT security 2018, a Forrester Research report from January 2018 added that IoT devices can cover a large surface area when concerned with connectivity and they act as a gateway for the threats because they expand the surface area of the attack. “It completely makes the core of the enterprise’s infrastructure under threat, cloud, data, applications all come under the threat umbrella. Some security solution providers have a definite set of policies that can prevent any other device to access the other function of the network infrastructure”. The security providers have raised a concern regarding the primary problems of such devices that are hard to patch. Many of those devices don’t even have a physical screen or User Interface wherein the device’s software can be accessed and updated.  Another type of attack that affects the IoT devices is the lack of urgency and awareness on the part of the devices. IoT threat is dynamic and is quite different from other types of threats.

IoT threats are more organized and dynamic, usually, an organization with strong impetus towards the cause of disruption can help to move the threat towards a different cause. It can even be a third party vendor that earlier had accessed the devices to improve the experience and now using the device to feed in the wrong data. The string of the connected devices can cause them to complete act differently this, in turn, acts against the company rather than outright theft of data.  The lack of security awareness act as a blind spot with ruinous potential overall around 80 percent of the devices will act as a gateway for the attack with an unsecured device in the next two years. Almost one-third of the enterprises have admitted that the data breach had taken place at some level but they weren’t really able to prevent it.

2. Discover What You Have

One of the major reasons, why data breaches that get affected by the IoT devices actually don’t know the number of IoT devices that are connected to the enterprise network.  While it might seem just a foundational element that needs to happen many of the enterprises actually don’t have a complete count of IoT devices that are used in the infrastructure.  Ponemon study that was conducted concluded that most of the organizations don’t inventories’ their IoT devices because they don’t have centralized control over using which they can manage the device.  Most of the enterprises lack the required management tools that can provide network management. Tools that can improve information sharing and maintain the infrastructure environment. During the inventory, organizing the enterprises should actively look for the devices that shouldn’t be connected to the network but are, who all are currently accessing these devices. There might be many devices from the vendors or partners that actually shouldn’t be permitted to access the data. They represent the security vulnerability that can be exploited to get access to the network. When dealing with the string of devices also look for potential areas that might cause privacy concerns with the devices.

3. Securing the Architecture

One of the implemented solutions that we need to accept is to redesign the network architecture.  Redesigning the security network devices can actually prevent many of the attacks to affect the complete environment.  Isolating the devices from the networks can help improve the performance. If you are careful with a network design that can benefit the IP connected devices and even protect the network from the incoming threat. Close to 10 percent of the devices are connected to the internet but many organization actually fail to identify those devices.  Unprotected networks and devices can act as a gateway for the DDoS type of attack.  Recently during a survey, it was cited that many of the organization have been affected by the vendor’s security challenges that have affected the complete network.

Conclusion

IoT devices are going to be affecting the enterprise’s infrastructure and network, it’s better to be ready for that than being surprised. Having an internal policy in place to protect the device and isolating the network used for deployment and communication to normalize the situation. To improve the IoT device security having an infrastructure or team will not just be a simple task a constant solution that can assist in preventing and also be dynamic in securing the network.

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