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Securing Networks in the Internet of Things Era | Help Net

Cricket Liu, the CIO of Infoblox has an interesting editorial over at Help Net Security today that looks at the challenge of securing the Internet of Things.

Among other things, he reveals the results of a commissioned survey of 400 network professionals in the UK and US that revealed  that 78 percent already have precursor IoT devices on their networks – including badge readers, networked cash registers, vending machines and so on. Seventy three percent of those surveyed acknowledged using connected surveillance gear like CCTV on their networks.

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The Internet of Things will challenge enterprises to adapt current security practices to account for connected devices.

That shouldn’t be surprising. What is surprising is that a strong majority of respondents – 63 percent – also saw those devices and IoT in general as a threat to network security. So: IoT adoption is gaining speed, and worries about IoT security are gaining traction.

The survey suggests that few IT organisations have deployed IoT-specific infrastructure, such as dedicated networks for IoT devices or management systems. (Just 35 percent of respondents said they had done so.) For the most part, that means IoT devices are deployed on the same network as traditional IT assets like PCs and servers, as well as enterprise applications. That’s a practice that has “clear security implications in light of the fact that every connected device is a potential entry point for malware,” Liu warns.

Check out the rest of his editorial via Securing networks in the Internet of Things era.

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