Cybersecurity has been top of mind for industry experts and consumers alike. The WannaCry ransomware is putting a legitimate scare into affected companies, although many are apparently preparing to call the hackers’ bluff. Yesterday, another cyberattack was announced as well, and it has the potential to be far more lucrative for the developers. The common denominator between the two? A leaked exploit developed by the NSA that leverages a Windows file-sharing protocol. These attacks are indicative of the long-term game of cat and mouse that the government and private enterprise faces for the foreseeable future of security and counterintelligence. Moving forward, the growing network of connected devices for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) faces similar security threats. This week, we found several stories demonstrating some of the solutions surrounding those potential security issues.
The 9 Best Practices for IIoT from a Dell Security Expert
At a recent presentation for 2017 Dell EMC World Conference, Rohan Kotian, Dell EMC’s senior product manager for IoT security, spoke about his nine best practices for improved IIoT security. His number one strategy? Simply understanding the concerns. Many IoT devices come out of the box with few security controls in place, and understanding the risk is the most important step in addressing them. In this article from Tech Republic, you can read Mr. Kotian’s other nine best practices, including studying the attack trends, classifying risk, and leveraging fog computing.
IIoT Market Expected to Approach One Trillion Dollars by 2025
Grand View Research writes that the industrial Internet of Things will experience explosive growth over the next decade, going from a $109 billion industry in 2016 to an expected $933.62 billion by 2025.
The massive market increase will be driven by a number of factors, one of which continued investment by government agencies and corporate leaders. As the report states, “The role of the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasingly becoming more prominent in enabling easy access to devices and machines. Government-sponsored initiatives and innovative efforts made by key companies, such as Huawei, GE, and Cisco, are anticipated to enhance the adoption of IIoT worldwide over the forecast period.”
IIoT Presents Unique Security Challenges
Security is always a top priority in the Internet of Things, but IIoT applications present unique challenges. In this article from CSO Online, Phil Neray, CyberX’s vice president of industrial cybersecurity, writes that despite the growth of IoT applications in oil, gas, electric, and pharmaceuticals, “The fact is that all of these devices were designed a long time ago.”
That means IIoT innovators have the challenge of integrating the newest technology into systems that may be decades old. This sort of retrofitting can make security a real challenge and there are few experts available who have both the knowledge of legacy systems and the latest IIoT solutions.
Sprint to Deploy LTW Cat 1 by End Of July
The Internet of Things relies heavily on low-power communication protocols to perform, so a recent announcement on FierceWireless.com that Sprint will be releasing LTE Cat 1 by the end of July is music to IoT developer’s ears. LTE Cat 1 is designed to support low-power applications on the Sprint network such as vehicle telematics and industrial IoT applications.
“As one of the leading enablers and solution providers of the internet of things, Ericsson believes in its power to transform industries and capture new growth,” said Glenn Laxdal, head of Network Products for Ericsson North America. “Ericsson looks forward to partnering with Sprint to deploy Cat M1 next year and bring the transformative power of IoT to the Sprint Nationwide network.”
The announcement also noted that Cat M would be following in mid-2018. TE Cat M1 and LTE Cat NB1 will support other applications requiring ultralow-throughput and power consumption.