Internet of Things Archives

Internet of Things

Big GOV Shift To Secure Cloud?

June 2, 2014 Paul Roberts

For those of us covering the cyber security beat, there haven’t been many feel-good stories coming out of the federal government in – well – forever. Even before the advent of nation state sponsored hacking, the news was mostly of the federal government’s bloated and unwieldy IT infrastructure, byzantine procurement systems and the difficulty of attracting top talent away from private sector employers who could offer more pay, more autonomy and a better working environment. Then came the gut wrenching display of offensive prowess by the U.S.’s main enemies – nations like China, Russia and Iran. Those stories started, in earnest, with news about operations like Titan Rain (in 2003) and continue to the present day. The problem has gotten so bad that the military’s preferred euphemism for Chinese hackers – “advanced persistent threat,” or “APT” has become part of the nomenclature of the IT security world far beyond […]

Report: Hell is Unpatched Systems

June 2, 2014 Paul Roberts

One of the ‘subplots’ of the Internet of Things revolution concerns embedded devices. Specifically: the tendency of embedded devices to be either loosely managed or – in some cases – unmanageable. The future holds the promise of more, not fewer of these. That’s the gist of a piece I wrote for InfoWorld, and that you can read here. In short: we’re already seeing the beginning of a shift on the threat landscape. While attacks against traditional endpoints (like Windows desktops, laptops and servers) are still the norm, there are more stories each day about cyber criminal groups and malicious actors who are compromising non-standard endpoints like home wifi routers. In March, for example, the security consultancy Team Cymru identified a botnet consisting of some 300,000 compromised home routers and other in-home devices. The virus called “TheMoon” was also identified spreading between vulnerable home routers and other embedded devices. The […]

Car Makers, Suppliers Going Their Own Way On Security

June 1, 2014 Paul Roberts

I was surprised to see a big feature story over at CNN.com this morning – given that the security of connected vehicles has no obvious link to LA Clippers owner Don Sterling, the on-going shakeup at the Veterans Administration or a tornado or other natural disaster. Still – there it is: “Your car is a giant computer – and it can be hacked.” The feature, by Jose Pagliery is solid enough – though it doesn’t break much new ground. He mentions the research by Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller at The Black Hat Briefings last year. He also talks to the folks over at Security Innovation. [Want more on security and connected vehicles? Check out our video: Insecure At Any Speed: Are Automakers Failing The Software Crash Test? ] The big take-away: automobiles are rife with old and outdated software and hardware, much of it lacking even basic security features like secure communications […]

This Week In Security: Ebay’s School of Hard Knocks

June 1, 2014 Paul Roberts

It’s the end of another busy week in the security world. As we’re wont to do at The Security Ledger, we had DUO Security Evangelist Mark Stanislav in to the deluxe Security Ledger Studios to talk about the events of the week. On the agenda this week: the continued fallout from the hack of online auction giant eBay. The company ran into a thicket of criticism this week for the breach and its botched response. Despite knowing about the security breach for weeks, eBay seemed unprepared for the fallout once the news became public. Beyond its statements to the press, the company hadn’t taken steps to streamline the (inevitable) flood of customers who wanted to update their password. In fact, more than a day after the news broke, eBay still hadn’t made mention of it on their home page. What lessons can we learn from the breach at online auction […]

Video: The Internet of Things and Enterprise Risk

May 29, 2014 Paul Roberts

The Security Ledger recently hosted our inaugural event: The Security of Things Forum (SECOT). This was a high-energy, day long conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that brought together subject experts, executives and thought leaders from disparate areas like high tech, finance and industrial systems to talk about the tsunami of change that is the Internet of Things. One of the big questions hovering over the event: how will IoT technologies and services change the security paradigm that we’ve all be operating under- but especially in enterprises. In fact, IoT and enterprise was the topic of our very first discussion of the day: a panel chaired by Chris Rezendes of INEX Advisors, a leading consultancy focusing on IoT. SECoT Forum 2014 – Democratized Data, IOT and Enterprise Risk from Exhibitor Media Group on Vimeo It’s a really big and messy problem. As panelist Ken Pfeil of Pioneer Investments pointed out: the hack of […]