IoT devices are prone to cyber-attacks and hence deserve better security standards and guidelines to ensure data security.

The life around us has changed. We are now in a digital space where everything around us is intelligent, even the watches we wear. The advent of intelligent devices has improved daily lives and business operations. IoT plays a pivotal role in this digital transformation by connecting and controlling devices over the internet. Many features of the modern world depend on the IoT for processing and monitoring real-time data to gain efficiency and agility. According to IoT Analytics, it is expected that there will be more than 30 billion IoT connections by 2025, with almost 4 IoT devices per person on average driven by new technology standards like 5G.

IoT has a wide range of acceptance but the technology comes with certain security concerns. Securing IoT devices can be complicated considering the heterogeneity of devices connected. The remote work scenario brought in by the pandemic escalated the risk of cybersecurity breaches in the IoT system.

The Nokia Threat Intelligence Report 2020 found that the IoT devices make up 37.72% of infected devices, and the share occupied by IoT devices in the overall breakdown has increased by 100%.

Insecure IoT Threats

IoT devices are connected over the internet and hence are vulnerable to attacks. The wide connectivity and accessibility of IoT devices pose a threat as they can compromise privacy and sensitive data. Hackers often target weak IoT systems for ransomware and malware attacks like DDoS. The web-based interfaces of IoT systems give away data since they can be accessed easily.

Insecure IoT devices in a smart home will help bad actors get hold of personal information and access to your homes. Organizations should create awareness over IoT devices and their security since they might entertain unauthorized access and data breaches. IoT devices have also been a victim of sophisticated cyber attacks like Zero-day attacks that can cause dangerous repercussions to organizations.  The large interconnected networks in an IoT system create vulnerable endpoints and hackers launch cyberattacks to jam websites and procure necessary data. Recently attackers have started leveraging advanced AI tools to drain sensitive information and even carry out cyber breaches since AI is capable of processing large data sets in less time.

The utilization of deepfakes in attacking IoT systems is also rampant through brute-force attacks, spoofing biometrics, etc. The increasing integration of IT and OT departments has escalated the vulnerabilities since OT systems are less mature in terms of updates and security patchworks.

These specialized IoT attacks threaten the existence and use of IoT devices that are the blood and bone of many organizational processes and real-life scenarios. Addressing these security issues should be considered essential to ensure a safer ecosystem for data protection and digital transformation.

Overcoming the Threats

The IoT security should evolve to accommodate technologies like blockchain to ensure better protection from hackers. Beating the challenges might not be easy but are definitely achievable with the right safety measures.

• More new policies like the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act 2020, should emerge in all countries to ensure security compliance. This act is aimed at federal agencies and it requires the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standards and guidelines for the use of IoT devices. It helps federal agencies to act on security vulnerabilities with minimum delay.
• Network segmentation of IoT devices can disable hackers from accessing the data. Splitting internal networks based on the connectivity requirements of IoT endpoints can restrict the area for the attackers and thus minimize risks. Network security solutions like installing Firewall will also help improve network security.
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a leading solution for securing IoT devices. PKI offers data integrity verification by authenticating identities, encrypting data, and flexible security measures. Organizations can customize and modify PKI systems to ensure better methods to detect unauthorized access and threats according to unique cybersecurity goals.
• AI and machine learning can efficiently fight the security issues concerning IoT devices by analyzing data sets and detecting anomalies. AI and machine learning-based Intrusion detection Systems (IDS) should be employed to monitor IoT networks and collect data. Further, ML and AI systems can analyze these datasets to provide insights on security breaches. Predictive analysis can be leveraged to examine data history, find anomalies based on the data, and predict threats and breaches.

Other security measures like multi-factor authentication, setting up a monitoring system, improving software infrastructure, regular software updates, and data backups can curb cybersecurity breaches in IoT devices and networks. Securing IoT devices cannot take a back seat and hence, manufacturers, organizations, and network providers should work together to ensure better security.