How To Develop An All-encompassing IoT Security Strategy

IT INFRASTRUCTURE AUDIT

The path to a cohesive and secure IoT starts with a thorough examination of your current IT infrastructure and assessing the value of integrating a connected solution into your company’s business processes.

• Address reliable IoT consulting services to calculate the expected profits of investing in custom IoT development and choose the appropriate technology stack.
• Conduct an inventory of the open-source and 3rd-party software components utilized by your enterprise applications (mobile and web) to detect and remediate documented security vulnerabilities.
• Prioritize security risks to manage your development and quality assurance resources more effectively.
• Implement firewalls to protect sensitive data during legacy software re-platforming and perform manual and automated tests to ensure the new code meets the reinforced security requirements.

“SECURITY BY DESIGN” PRINCIPLE

Regardless of the numerous gaps in IoT security which originate from the inconsistent regulations, stakeholder indifference, and user disregard for basic security requirements, there are IoT security best practices every company should follow to avoid IoT-related mishaps.

• Data encryption & device authentication. Encryption is the process of encoding the information stored on a device or transmitted between the components of an IoT system. The use of digital certificates (X.509), TLS cryptographic protocols (SSL, TSL), and reliable connectivity protocols (MQTT, CoAP, AMPQ, XMPP, ZeroMQ) plays a central role in preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data.
  
  
• Network security. The fundamental measures to enhance IoT network security include the removal of outdated connected devices from a corporate network, the implementation of firewalls and anti-malware software, and automatic security scans carried out with the help of monitoring tools and SIEM platforms such as AWS IoT Device Defender, Amazon Cognito and the IBM IoT Watson Platform which can be merged into an IoT infrastructure via APIs.
  
  
• Hardware security. Software security alone has proven ineffective in protecting IoT systems that incorporate user-accessible devices. Therefore you should only use devices provided by trusted manufacturers which automatically identify unauthorized access and erase sensitive data once tampering is detected. An appropriate over-the-air (OTA) updates mechanism is also required to enable self-recovery after corrupted and interrupted updates, as well as code compatibility and provenance verification. 

Additional steps to enhance IoT security may include the introduction of multi-factor authentication methods based on biometrics technology (fingerprinting, facial and iris recognition) and the implementation of security features on the infrastructure level. Artificial Intelligence technology solutions in general — and Machine Learning in particular — are largely regarded as the future of IoT security; its applications vary from on-device AI in edge and fog computing architectures to advanced access control models based on face recognition technology.

In a world where only 10% of IoT vendors express confidence in their products’ security, the cultivation of a safe and highly effective IoT environment often starts on a company’s level. By 2021, more enterprises are expected to establish dedicated IoT councils to reimagine corporate IT policies, refine security strategies and educate employees on IoT and data usage.