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10 Essential Internet of Things Infographs

December 8, 2013 Paul Roberts

The term “Internet of Things” (or IoT) is so often used these days that it can be difficult to know exactly what it refers to. But the “Internet of Things” isn’t any less relevant or important just because it happens to be nudging its way up the steep side of Gartner’s Hype Curve. So understanding what people mean by “Internet of Things” is critical, even if not all those people would agree on a common definition themselves. Fortunately, many firms with a hand in the IoT have gone through the trouble of boiling their view of the Internet of Things down into handy, informative infographics. We’ve pulled a few of them together here for The Security Ledger – focusing on those that speak to the critical issues of safety, security and data privacy whenever possible. Check out this slideshow. Mouse over the image to learn more, or click on the […]

Senator Asks Automakers About Cyber Security, Privacy Plans

December 4, 2013 Paul Roberts

Cyber attacks on so-called “connected vehicles” are still in the proof of concept stage. But those proofs of concept are close enough to the real thing to prompt an inquiry from U.S. Senator Ed Markey, who sent a letter to 20 major auto manufacturers asking for information about consumer privacy protections and safeguards against cyber attacks in their vehicles. Markey’s letter, dated December 2, cites recent reports of “commands…sent through a car’s computer system that could cause it to suddenly accelerate, turn or kill the breaks,” and references research conducted by Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek on Toyota Prius and Ford Escape. That research was presented in an August demonstration at the DEFCON hacking conference in Las Vegas. [For more on the security threats facing connected vehicles, check out this link.] “Today’s cars and light trucks contain more than 50 separate electronic control units (ECUs), connected through a controller area network […]

Symantec Warns: Worm Can Target Internet of Things

December 2, 2013 Paul Roberts

Symantec, the security software firm, is reporting that its researchers have discovered a new, malicious “worm” that is spreading on the Internet and has been adapted to attack embedded devices running the Linux operating system, including many devices that are part of the Internet of Things. Writing on the Symantec research blog, Kaoru Hayashi, a threat analyst within Symantec’s Security Response organization, said that the company had uncovered the worm, dubbed Linux.Darlloz, spreading between more common PC systems. However, an analysis of the program revealed that its creators were thinking big: engineering the worm to be capable of attacking a “range of small, Internet-enabled devices in addition to traditional computers.” Specifically, Symantec’s team found variants of Darlloz for chip architectures common in devices ranging from home routers and set-top boxes to security cameras. The warnings about an “Internet of Things worm” were hypothetical, however. Hayashi said that no attacks against non-PC […]

ThingWorx Says IoT Marketplace Will Speed Adoption

November 18, 2013 Paul Roberts

ThingWorx, the ‘platform as a service’ (PaaS) vendor, has made empowering the Internet of Things (or Internet of Everything) its rallying cry. Now the company says it is the first to market with an IoT “marketplace” that it claims will speed development of smart, connected products. The company announced ThingWorx Marketplace at Salesforce.com’s “Dreamforce” event in San Francisco on Monday. The new platform will allow ThingWorx and third party firms to offer “components and services” that are needed to build full-featured IoT applications. Those may be things like new kinds of sensors, widgets, device connectors, protocol adapters, hooks into device clouds or integrations with enterprise management platforms, according to a ThingWorx statement. The platform will be accessible by ThingWorx partners, independent hardware and software vendors, and third party developers, the company said. Enterprises will be able to deploy private instances of the Marketplace to host internally developed applications, application templates, analytics, […]

Snowden Borrowed from APT Playbook In NSA Hack

November 16, 2013 Paul Roberts

We know for sure that Edward Snowden made short work of the protections that the National Security Agency used to segregate classified data. Snowden’s revelations about government spying on foreign governments, domestic and foreign firms and…well…just about everyone else first appeared in print in May. Since that time, a looming question is “how?” In other words: how did a single contractor gain access to such a massive trove of classified intelligence while working for the most security conscious organization in the world? While the exact methods used by Snowden are still not known, there are many theories. Now the security firm Venafi thinks that it has an answer, and is challenging the NSA to prove it wrong. In a blog post on Wednesday, the company laid much of the blame on poor management of digital certificates and user credentials, which allowed Snowden to move laterally within the NSA’s classified […]