Internet of Things Archives

Tag: Internet of Things

Essentials for Visibility-Driven Security

October 27, 2014 Scott Harrell

Visibility is surprisingly tricky. The security industry offers many disparate tools to provide customers “visibility” into what is happening on their networks. Among them are tools that track what applications are on the network, tools for enumerating and tracking software vulnerabilities, tools for determining when sensitive data has left a network, tools that indicate when attacks are underway and tools that identify and analyze network data flows – to name just a few. Of course, layered on top of all this “visibility” are further systems that correlate and analyze what the mission-specific tools are seeing. Promises of a “single pane of glass” aside, the result is often a mishmash of data and events that require skilled security practitioners to analyze and interpret. The mishmash, in turn, leads to errors in analysis and prioritization. Albert Einstein famously said “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” So it is in the information security industry, where a common refrain is “you can’t protect […]

Congress To Probe the Internet of Things?

October 25, 2014 Paul Roberts

A bipartisan contingent of senators from the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has requested a hearing on the topic of the Internet of Things before the end of the year, according to published reports. Lawmakers Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote to the committee chairman, Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and ranking member,John Thune (R-S.D.), requesting “a general oversight and information-gathering hearing” on the IoT before the end of 2014, citing concerns about consumer privacy and security, as well as potential government applications of IoT technology. IoT technologies including wearables and connected health products represent an “expanding industry of connected products,” the congressmen and women wrote. “The proliferation of connected products is sparking a number of important policy questions,” the October 20th letter reads. “The number and the scope of these issues demands our prompt attention so we can better understand the technologies and explore how best to preserve America’s global leadership […]

You’re Doing NAT Wrong! One Million SOHO Routers Vulnerable

October 23, 2014 Paul Roberts

A vulnerability in more than 1 million small office and home office (or SOHO) routers makes them potentially vulnerable to remote attacks that could expose private internal network traffic to prying eyes, according to a warning posted by the firm Rapid7.

Is IoT Innovation Outpacing Our Ability To Keep It Safe?

October 20, 2014 Paul Roberts

GigaOm has an interesting, high-level piece that looks at the issue of law, liability and the Internet of Things. The article takes off from a discussion at the Download event in New York City earlier this month, wondering whether adoption of Internet of Things technologies like wearables is starting to run far ahead of society’s ability to manage them. Specifically: is the pace of technology innovation outstripping the ability of our legal system to reign in excess and protect public safety and civil liberties? On the list of ‘what-if’s’ are some familiar questions: How to assign liability. (“If one of Google’s automated cars crashes, is it the fault of the driver or Google?”) Read more Security Ledger coverage of Internet of Things here. What responsibility to users have to take advantage of safety features in connected products? (Does a parent’s failure to password-protect a baby monitor change the manufacturer’s liability when and […]

Convergence of M2M and IoT signals Major Cultural Shift

October 20, 2014 Paul Roberts

Required reading for Monday: TechCrunch has a nice little explainer article by @ArtyomAstafurov (of DeviceHive) that talks about the evolution of machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies into the Internet of Things and how the two technology trends are now indistinguishable- and are poised to cause large-scale disruption. To quote Astafurov: “IoT separates itself from M2M not only in the simplicity and quantity of devices involved, but also by how the devices communicate with each other…Whereas M2M tends to rely on point-to-point exchanges between individual devices, IoT communications involve dispersed devices sharing data through a central server, resulting in exponentially more data based on the relationships and patterns that emerge.” And the IoT will drive massive investment in products and technologies that can capture, aggregate and analyze consumer data. This will be akin to the kind of investment corporations put into ERP (enterprise resource planning) tools a decade ago, he says. Though the focus of IoT right […]