IoT Security
Article | October 11, 2023
Understanding the Impact of IoT Device Management
The Internet of Things (IoT) industry is growing exponentially, with the potential to become limitless. The current range of existing and potential Internet of Things devices is in itself quite enormous. This also gives businesses an opportunity to pay more attention to the newest technologies.
In ascenario with rapidly increasing numbers of devices, manual management of devices becomes close to impossible, laced with human errors. Moreover, keeping an eye on hundreds of devices one by one to make sure they work the way they should is not an easy task to undertake.
Businesses at the outset of IoT adoption are most often unaware of why they require a device management platform.This is precisely why a device management platform is so crucial.It can effectively connect toall of theconnected devices and get the required information from them in the right way.
An effective device management platform can turn out to be the vital aspect that will define the success of any small or large IoT implementation project. Such a platform would ideally allow organizations to manage their internet-connected devices remotely.
"If you think that the internet has changed your life, think again. The IoT is about to change it all over again!" — Brendan O'Brien, Chief Architect & Co-Founder, Aria Systems.
Why Do Organizations Need an IoT Device Management Platform?
An effective IoT device management platform offers simplified provisioning, centralized management, and real-time insights into all existing devices and integrations to help organizations stay on top of their deployment.
Device management platforms help you keep a check on the growing number of devices while keeping errors at bay, with your growing number of connected devices. It would ensure that you have a clear dashboard and an alerting system as an effective supporting system. In addition, getting involved with IoT device management platforms can also help you in a number of other ways.
It acceleratestime-to-market and helps reduce costs
The management platform enables secure device on and offboarding
It also streamlines network monitoring and troubleshooting
IoT simplifies deployment and management of downstream applications
It mitigates security risks
Evaluating the Future of IoT Device Management
It is predicted that the world will have more than 100 billion IoT-connected devices by 2050. The future potential of the IoT is limitless, and the potential is not about enabling billions of devices together but leveraging the enormous volumes of actionable data thatcan automate diverse business processes.
Critical Aspects of the IoT's Future
The critical aspects of IoT predictionsare fast impacting several categories all across the globe, ranging from consumer to industrial.
IoT Companies and a Circular Economy
IoT firms are assisting in the development of a future with less waste, more energy efficiency, and increased personal autonomy. A connected device system, on the other hand, must be feedback-rich and responsive, and activities must be linked via data in order to be sustainable. Ways to achieve a responsive and actionable system include:
Extending the use cycle with predictive maintenance.
Increasing utilization and reducing unplanned downtime.
Looping the asset for reuse, remanufacture, or recycle.
Common Billing and Revenue Challenges
We are currently moving toward a future where everything from cars to household machines and home security will be sold by manufacturers as subscription services. This will result in organizations selling IoT subscriptions looking for new ways to managebilling and revenue for their business model.
Service diversity
Data monetization
Complex stakeholder network
Cost management
Cohesive IoT Deployment Strategy for the C-suite
With the future of IoTon its way to becoming the most disruptive innovation and compelling technology that will facilitate better services to customers, from a support perspective, being connected remotely with customers' devices offers considerable advantages to service organizations. However, this is also not a new concept; earlier, large organizations and data storage companies were remotely connected to their client systems using dedicated telecommunications links before the commercialization of the internet.
Using the estimates of the exponential rise in connected devices, the IoT offers a wide array of opportunities to effectively improve the industry, such as:
Consumer activity tracking includes in-store applications that assess traffic flow and purchase choices.
Manufacturing, storage, distribution, and retail operations have been optimized to increase productivity and reduce waste.
Energy, inventory, and fleet assets are all used more efficiently.
Improved situational awareness, such as vehicle warning systems
Enhanced decision-making, such as medical equipment that notifies doctorswhen a patient's health changes.
Self-parking and self-driving automobiles are examples of autonomous systems.
An interesting case study with Michelin showed that they were adding sensors to tires to better understand wear over time. This data is important for clients to know when to rotate or replace tires which saves them money and enhances safety. However, this also implies Michelin can move away from selling tires and instead lease them. Because sensor data will teach the corporation how to maintain the tires, Michelin now has a new economic incentive to have tires last as long as feasible. IoT device management plays a crucial role in effectively accumulating and processing data from all the widely distributed IoT sensors.
Conclusion
As more sectors discover the advantages linked machines can bring to their operations, IoT enterprises have a bright future ahead of them. Newer services are steadily being pushed out on top of IoT infrastructure in industries ranging from healthcare to retail, telecommunications, and even finance. Due to increasing capacity and AI, service providers will move deeper into IT and web-scale industries, enabling whole new income streams as IoT device management platforms adapt to address these obstacles.
FAQ
Why Is Device Management Crucial for the IoT?
An IoT device management platform's features may help you save time and money and increase security while also providing the critical monitoring and management tools you need to keep your devices up-to-dateand optimized for your unique application requirements.
What Impact Will the IoT Have on the Management or Administration Sectors?
IoT technology allows for increased collaboration, but it will also free up your team's time from monotonous and isolating duties. For example, routine chores may be encoded into computers, freeing up time to concentrate on higher-order tasks.
What Are the Basic Requirements for IoT Device Management?
The four essential needs for IoT Device Management are as follows.
Authentication and provisioning
Configuration and Control.
Diagnostics and monitoring
Updating and maintaining software.
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Enterprise Iot
Article | July 20, 2023
Manufacturing industry or the Industrial Internet of Things has been one of the driving verticals for development of 5G technologies. Wide 5G deployement for Industrial IoT has long been in the pipeline but we might expect it to be a reality very soon.
The true success of 5G depends on the verticals as trends suggest that that Industrial IoT alone will triple the number of needed base stations globally. And many verticals will need efficient wireless connectivity to become successful. 5G has features that are specifically designed to address the needs of vertical sectors, such as network slicing and URLLC. The ultra-reliable low latency communications and massive machine type communications required by the IIoT will soon be realized.
Table of Contents:
How Will 5G Impact Industrial IoT?
5G Accelerations for IIoT
Industrial 5G
How Will 5G Benefit Industrial IoT?
IoT is a B2B application and users just want to get actionable data from their sensors and not worry about whether it’s old data or unreliable data. I think 5G changes this dynamic significantly over the long term by standardizing and simplifying the experience and interactions, and possibly engaging more of the industry to help solve IoT’s problems but also improve the total experience.
- Anshel Sag, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy
• Data-Transfer Speeds
Any IoT is said to be commercially successful depending on how fast it can set up communications with other IoT devices, software based websites or applications, phones, and tablets. 5G promises exactly all of this with significant increase in transfer speeds.
5G is 10x faster than its LTE counterparts and allows IoT devices to communicate and share data faster than ever. All IoT devices will benefit from the faster speed of 5G with reduced lag and improved sending and receiving of data and notifications between connected devices.
• Greater Network Reliability
5G networks also offer more reliable and stable connection which is extremely important for any IoT including devices like locks, security cameras and monitoring systems that depend on real-time updates.
With reliable connectivity consumers will be the greater beneficiary.
It is however, imperative for manufactures to trust and invest in 5G compatible devices to reap the benefits of high-speed connectivity, very low latency, and a greater coverage that will arrive with the next generation network.
READ MORE:How Will the Emergence of 5G Affect Federated Learning?
5G Accelerations for IIoT
• Diversity in Industrial IoT
The opportunities that industrial IoT bring with is varied and its used cases span the spectrum from indoor to outdoor, less demanding to mission-critical, data rate from dozens of bps to gbps, device motion from fixed to mobility, and power source from button battery to high voltage.
Predictive maintenance, smart metering, asset tracking, and fleet management are some of the commonly known opportunities for IIoT, which be extended further by 5G through continued diversity and expansion.
• 5G Inspires Untapped Frontiers
Industrial IoT application areas such as mobile robot control in production automation and autonomous vehicles in open pit mining require wide mobility, low latency and mission-critical reliability. They rely on wireless access at 50ms to 1ms latency and service reliability from 5 nines to 6 nines.
Though 4G/LTE has attempted to address these areas of IIoT application it has failed due to unsatisfactory performance. With ultra-reliable and low latency connection, 5G will take industrial IoT to unconquered spaces.
• Managing the Enterprise 5G Network
Typically, enterprise IT is responding to the business demand from Operational Technology (OT) and mandates security, integration, visibility, control, and compatibility. In this scenario, 5G is not about “what,” but about “how”. IT needs to consider the right approach to bring 5G to the enterprise and decide whether to co-manage with the service provider (SP) or self-manage. The experience of IT in managing Industrial Ethernet and Wi-Fi may not hold when it comes to 5G. IT will likely require OT’s partnership to address complexity, security, integration, and other new challenges that 5G presents.
Industrial 5G
The potential for industrial 5G huge as it enables whole new business models.
Industrial IoT has a core requirement of the ability to connect sensors, devices, software applications, production process, workers and consumers. The connectivity requires to be seamless vertical and horizontal integrations of all layers of automation pyramids that increases operational efficiency of the plant floor and the supply chain by optimal use of data, information and analytics. This can be improved by five key elements:
• Improved Connectivity
• Availability
• Low Latency
• Flexibility
• Speed
Industrial 5G will impact these areas of the manufacturing industry to guide the success of Industrial IoT.
Industrial 5G will play a key role in helping industrial users achieve the goals of Industrial IoT. 5G offers wireless communications services with reduced latency, increased connection density, and improved flexibility compared to the current 4G generation. 5G technology has a theoretical downlink peak speed of 20 Gbps (gigabits per second), which is about 20 times faster than the current generation.
The key is to start building IoT devices with broadly adopted operating systems, built-in security all the way down to the silicon, verifiable and updatable firmware, and mainstream application development tooling.
- Anshel Sag, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy
The push and pull in achieving 5G success in IoT will be there until technology providers and end users work together to set up a consensus on standardization. The success will also depend on best-of-breed approach allowing the introduction of new technology over the lifecycle. Software and system integration will also be important attributes to a successful 5G deployment.
READ MORE:How Will IoT Revolutionize Pharmaceutical Manufacturing?
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IoT Security
Article | June 27, 2023
Tech companies are stepping up Internet of Things technologies to protect against COVID-19 and future viruses by using LiDAR and infrared cameras to detect a person’s body temperature from a distance or even handwashing. Keeping the data secure in such detection is also going to be a challenge. One approach is to put a chip inside an IoT device when it is manufactured to enable strong authentication and secure communication, mainly to guard against device counterfeiting. Hitachi Vantara has touted forward looking infrared cameras (FLIR) cameras to detect the temperature of a person from a distance. That way a passenger on a train or a worker or a customer in a store can be non-intrusively screened, according to a blog from Mark Jules, global vice president of smart spaces and video intelligence.
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Industrial IoT, IoT Security
Article | July 11, 2023
Explore the IoT tools for security and maintenance. These IoT monitoring tools addresses cyber security and privacy issues, catering to a various users including industrialists & individuals.
With the proliferation of interconnected devices in the Internet of Things ecosystem, ensuring robust security measures has become crucial to protect against cyber threats. The complexity and diversity of IoT systems pose unique challenges, making thorough security testing an essential practice. To address these challenges, various IoT development tools have emerged that enable organizations to assess and mitigate vulnerabilities in their IoT deployments. In this article, explore the top ten tools to secure IoT and IoT testing, equipping professionals and organizations with the means to identify and address potential security weaknesses, thus bolstering the overall security posture of their IoT infrastructure.
1. AWS IoT Device Defender
AWS IoT Device Defender is one of the security IoT management tools, designed to protect and manage IoT devices and fleets. Its auditing capabilities and continuous monitoring enable users to assess their IoT resources' security posture, identify vulnerabilities, and address potential gaps. By leveraging machine learning models or defining custom device behaviors, it can monitor and detect malicious activities, such as traffic from suspicious IP addresses or unusual connection attempts. The tool provides security alerts for failed audits or behavior anomalies, allowing users to mitigate potential risks quickly. Built-in actions facilitate security issue resolution, including device certificate updates, quarantine, and policy replacements. AWS IoT Device Defender offers automation for security assessments, identification of attack vectors, analysis of historical device behavior, and alarm notifications through various AWS interfaces.
2. Dynamic Application Security Testing
Appknox offers two robust mobile application security solutions: Automated Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Penetration Testing (PT). With Automated DAST, users can assess the security of their mobile apps in real time while running in their operational environment. The solution provides access to real devices, allowing users to replicate real-life interactions and identify security vulnerabilities. On the other hand, Appknox's Penetration Testing solution delivers reliable and thorough security assessments by expert security researchers. Users can request a manual pentest effortlessly, and the skilled team analyzes apps to identify and eliminate potential threats. The process includes identifying the tech stack, analyzing the threat landscape, setting up breakpoints, testing responses, detecting bugs, and performing advanced threat exploits.
3. Enterprise IoT Security
Enterprise IoT Security is a comprehensive Zero Trust solution designed to address IoT devices' security challenges in modern enterprises. It helps eliminate implicit trust and enforces zero-trust principles through least privilege access, continuous trust verification, and continuous security inspection. With this solution, organizations can quickly discover and assess every IoT device, easily segment and enforce the least privileged access, and protect against known and unknown threats. By simplifying operations, Enterprise IoT Security enables faster deployment, with a 15-time faster deployment than other solutions. The solution offers better and faster protection for IoT devices, delivering 70 times more security efficiency and 20 times speedier policy creation.
4. Azure Sphere
Azure Sphere is a secure IoT platform offered by Microsoft that allows businesses to create, connect, and maintain intelligent IoT devices. It provides end-to-end security, from the silicon level to the operating system (OS) to the cloud. With Azure Sphere, organizations can securely connect, manage, and protect existing and new IoT devices. The platform offers over-the-air updates, integration with IoT platform services, and continuous security improvements. It helps businesses deploy real-time security patches, maintain device operations, and accelerate time to market. Azure Sphere incorporates essential security properties and offers comprehensive security and compliance.
5. Microsoft Defender for IoT
Microsoft Defender for IoT is a comprehensive security solution that provides real-time asset discovery, vulnerability management, and threat protection for the Internet of Things and industrial infrastructure, including ICS/OT environments. It offers context-aware visibility into IoT and OT assets, enabling organizations to manage their security posture and reduce attack surfaces based on risk prioritization. With behavioral analytics, it detects and responds to attacks across IT and OT networks. Integrated with SIEM/SOAR and XDR tools, it delivers unified security and leverages threat intelligence for automatic response. Microsoft Defender for IoT is designed to meet the unique security needs of various industries and supports complete endpoint protection when combined with Defender for Endpoint.
6. IoT Security
Forescout offers an IoT security solution that automates security measures and provides visibility for every device connected to the network. Their zero-trust approach ensures complete device visibility, proactive network segmentation, and least-privilege access control for IoT, OT, IoMT, and IT devices. The platform classifies and monitors devices in real time, identifies weak credentials, and enforces strong passwords. It also enables dynamic network segmentation and automates zero trust policy orchestration across multi-vendor environments. Forescout's solution efficiently manages asset inventory and device lifecycle and has been proven to scale for enterprise-level deployments.
7. ThingSpace
The ThingSpace Platform for IoT offers a comprehensive set of iot tools and devices for developing and managing the lifecycle of IoT devices. It enables connectivity management at scale, allowing secure activation on the Verizon network and providing features to troubleshoot, locate, and manage IoT devices. Whether at the prototype stage or ready to scale for enterprise-level deployment, ThingSpace provides the necessary resources for IoT solution development and management. As a Magic Quadrant Leader for IoT Connectivity Services, ThingSpace offers solutions for software management, device readiness, and overall device lifecycle management. Businesses can collaborate with technology leaders through their Executive Briefing Program to achieve their specific goals and gain a competitive edge.
8. Verimatrix
The Verimatrix Secure Delivery Platform offers a unified user experience by combining cybersecurity and anti-piracy services into a comprehensive cloud ecosystem. It provides media companies, content owners, streaming providers, and broadcast operators with a single pane of glass experience for securing content, applications, and devices. Key offerings include Streamkeeper Multi-DRM for cloud-based digital rights management, Verimatrix App Shield for zero code hardening of mobile applications, Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) for real-time monitoring, and Streamkeeper Counterspy for cybersecurity and anti-piracy solutions. The platform also facilitates partner integrations, enabling seamless onboarding and revenue preservation.
9. Trustwave
Trustwave's Managed IoT Security provides comprehensive solutions to secure the Internet of Things (IoT) and minimize the risk of compromise. With expertise from Trustwave SpiderLabs, it offers knowledge about network assets, identifies weaknesses in applications, servers, APIs, and cloud clusters, and enables secure IoT deployment with quick validation of fixes. This reduces the risk of compromised devices, which can lead to various threats, including DoS attacks, privacy violations, and data theft. Trustwave's services cater to IoT developers/manufacturers, offering product security reviews, testing, and incident readiness services. For IoT implementers, it provides managed security services and testing to safeguard deployments and associated data.
10. ARMIS Agentless Device Security Platform
The ARMIS Agentless Device Security Platform supports implementing the Critical Security Controls(CIS) framework. Developed by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), these controls are periodically updated by a global community of experts. ARMIS aligns with the CIS Controls and provides a comprehensive set of security controls to address the framework's requirements. The platform caters to enterprises of all sizes and offers different implementation groups based on risk profile and available resources. With ARMIS, organizations can enhance their cybersecurity posture and implement the CIS Controls effectively.
Final Thoughts
Security is a major concern in IoT tools and software due to the proliferation of connected devices, the diverse and complex nature of IoT ecosystems, the need to protect data privacy and confidentiality, the lack of standardization, the long lifecycles of devices, and the distributed and scalable nature of IoT deployments. Addressing these concerns is crucial to prevent unauthorized access, data breaches, and ensure the integrity and privacy of IoT data.
The IoT tools and technologies discussed in this article represent some of the top options for conducting comprehensive IoT security testing. By leveraging these tools, professionals and organizations can proactively identify and address vulnerabilities in their IoT systems, ensuring their data and devices' confidentiality, integrity, and availability. By incorporating these tools into their security practices, organizations can bolster their IoT security strategy and enhance their ability to protect against emerging threats in the dynamic IoT landscape.
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