A New Approach to IoT Security
The Internet of Things promises to bring everything from microwaves to pacemakers and shipping fleets online, leverage enormous amounts of new data, and ultimately, make our world smarter, easier, and more efcient. As an estimated 50 billion new devices come online in the next 5 years, Gartner Research lists security as the #1 challenge to making the Internet of Things a reality.
Why?
Because in order to be useful, IoT devices must make realtime bi-directional connections to the internet, and that type of communication is challenging to secure. Whereas security protocols and best practices for servers, personal computers, and smartphones are well-understood and broadly adopted, security for IoT devices is nascent and rarely sufcient.
It’s a hacker’s dream come true.
To combat this impending security crisis, we need a robust security model that works across the many diferent paradigms of device communication. Additionally, the security model should enable devices to
be plug-and-play for end consumers -- we can assume that if any component of the security model requires consumers to set their devices up and keep their software and firmware up to date correctly, the model is seriously flawed.
With this network-first security strategy in mind, this white paper details best-practice design patterns and tactics for implementing a secure data stream network network to enable bi-directional communication for the Internet of Things. It also explains the critical security requirements of such a network, each of
which plays a unique role in securing IoT applications and connected devices.
5 Key Requirements to Securing IoT Communications
1. Devices Must Not Have Open Inbound Ports.
2. End-to-End Encryption.
3. Token-Based Access Control.
4. Device Status Monitoring.
5. User-Friendly Setup and Upgrades.
Why?
Because in order to be useful, IoT devices must make realtime bi-directional connections to the internet, and that type of communication is challenging to secure. Whereas security protocols and best practices for servers, personal computers, and smartphones are well-understood and broadly adopted, security for IoT devices is nascent and rarely sufcient.
It’s a hacker’s dream come true.
To combat this impending security crisis, we need a robust security model that works across the many diferent paradigms of device communication. Additionally, the security model should enable devices to
be plug-and-play for end consumers -- we can assume that if any component of the security model requires consumers to set their devices up and keep their software and firmware up to date correctly, the model is seriously flawed.
With this network-first security strategy in mind, this white paper details best-practice design patterns and tactics for implementing a secure data stream network network to enable bi-directional communication for the Internet of Things. It also explains the critical security requirements of such a network, each of
which plays a unique role in securing IoT applications and connected devices.
5 Key Requirements to Securing IoT Communications
1. Devices Must Not Have Open Inbound Ports.
2. End-to-End Encryption.
3. Token-Based Access Control.
4. Device Status Monitoring.
5. User-Friendly Setup and Upgrades.
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