Security Implications of the Internet of Things

Featured blog by Xander Schofield, Independent Technology Writer

From the hacking of the Apple iCloud where celebrities’ accounts were accessed in 2014 to the hacking of Sony that jeopardized the release of the political satire comedy film, “The Interview”, no one knows where the next cyber security threat will be directed or will come from. Internet of things, from car to car communication, social media, Smart Grid to Smart Home among others, we are connected to all kinds of networks and devices, which helps in simplifying how we communicate, work or live. However, every connection is a cyber threat as it can be the perfect entry point for a cyber attacker. In fact, the New York Times reported that over one billion passwords from hacked accounts globally are stored in a single Russian database; no one is immune.

At the same time, governments and businesses know how dangerous data leaks can be considering the chaos brought about by a leak of classified surveillance programs of the NSA. As the world continues to embrace more connected devices, protection and security are becoming hugely important.

This is why military trained hackers are being recruited by private security software companies to help them accomplish top solutions largely hard for hackers to break into. These companies have seen the importance of using people who have spent most of their time behind government computers going after cyber attackers and securing governments from hackers.

Connected devices are great and their importance cannot be quantified. However, this has not made the wider public to stop complaining about the misuse of their data by diverse entities to advertise and promote products. It’s also clear lots of people today are not really seeing the importance of their security while some are actually ignorant of the cyber threat that faces them. Not many are actively securing their accounts and devices with complex passwords hard to crack or even updating their devices with the latest security settings regularly.

To avoid unwanted intrusions into company and personal networks and devices, technical adjustments should be implemented. This includes such technical adjustments as data integrity, authentication and data encryption. Essentially, no matter what cyber security solutions you have incorporated, you will always need to be incorporating digital security best practices. With data encryption, you will be using key algorithms to decrypt and encrypt electronic data while authentication adjustments mean something or someone is identified as being who or what they claim to be. At the same time, data integrity adjustments implementation is important, which simply mean the data is valid or correct and it was not accessed or changed along the way before it arrived to its final destination.

Courtesy of the dangers organizations and governments are facing today, it is worth noting that a one-fits-all cyber security solution does not exist. Those around cannot be said to be completely secure. As such, it is important to have security measures based on software, hardware and company-wide cyber security risks knowledge across the workforce.

Investing expensive security solutions for your Smartphone might not sound wise; the data might not be very important or worth much. However, if the device is highly useful in your business, the cost will be understandable. This is why companies, governments and individuals should not fear high cyber security expenses to protect their data since the ROI is priceless.