Internet of things: Poised to be a security headache?
Security is a major hang-up for enterprise Internet of things implementations, according to a pair of reports.
IBM's X-Force Threat Intelligence Quarterly on Monday noted that security threats to the Internet of things are already out there. Firmware can be exploited as can building systems and the networks that connect endpoints. IBM proposed a security model, which is a work in progress, and argued the following items will be needed for IoT implementations:
A secure OS with firmware guarantees
Unique identifiers
Authentication and access control
Data privacy protection
And strong application security
Those base blocking-and-tackling technologies could be likely to the various things that are being connected to the Internet. Here's a look at IBM's model.
Meanwhile, Zebra Technologies commissioned Forrester Research to examine IoT security issues. The takeaway:
Some decision-makers believe IoT solutions are one-off solutions requiring expensive customization, leading to concerns regarding cost overruns, scope creep, and implementation delays. Privacy and security concerns are one of the top five challenges for internal stakeholders in 21 percent of firms. Securing hundreds of thousands or even millions of connected devices is significantly different from completing these processes for hundreds or thousands of smartphones and tablets, for which there are far more established tools and processes.
It's clear that the following concerns can combine into a major headache on both the monitoring and security fronts. Indeed, almost 95 percent of 577 respondents were at least concerned, with 81.8 percent very or extremely concerned about IoT security.
