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Loading...Once again, it’s that time of the year, to swear avoiding junk foods, sweets and keep in shape. To learn new arts, and promise yourself with a resolution that this year you are going to pursue your passion and stick on to it.
Nevertheless, unlike those personal resolutions, which you already know you’re not going to stick on, and it may not be a serious, but when it comes to keeping your organization secure in 2019, that is something worth sticking to.
Having said that, you don’t have to go with a long list of Do’s and Don’ts. That’s why we have narrowed down to three primary objectives and goals that you need to keep track and adhere.
We have seen how botnet attacks were designed to infect connected devices. It took advantages of the various vulnerabilities. October 2017, was the time when we saw how every other day IoT devices was in the news for all wrong reasons. Reapers were said to be the worst example of the botnet that we have seen, nearly 28k devices was attacked. You name it, from DVRs, webcams, security cameras all got infected to the tune of more than 2 million devices.
This kind of attacks showed how the hackers are one step ahead of yours. So no matter what technology your device or network banks on, the fact remains, that our device being smarter is only putting data at risk of criminals.
This includes the IoT devices, from manufacturers to developers to consume. So this calls for better protection more than an antivirus program both on the front as a side and the 3 best way to counter it is as follows:
1. Think your devices are in vulnerable environment
Keep this in mind that no matter how tight your IT security is there is always a chance to get attacked, and that the environment you are dealing with is unsafe.
No network is ever safe and no individual devices are safe either, and the fact remains that no engineers or developer could do much about it. Having said that the devices need to be seen as the most vulnerable member of the network when it comes to IoT security.
Check the operating system you are on because it is the most critical way to approach this threat. Upgrading the OS for a better security means to make it simpler. How do we simplify this process is by cutting down the strain of the CPU processing, memory, storage capacity. This also means you also need to check on the vulnerabilities thoroughly. The simple you keep the OS the better it is to safeguard from external threat.
2. The priorities need to be streamlined
IoT devices are a complex system that goes on several devices to get the needed result. It means you’re securing the it means thinking about what the future holds, you. You need to chalk out a plan how you are going to patch it in the event of upgradation, this needs to be in your mind.
IoT devices are not meant for short-term planning, you are going to use them in the long run. So that is one reason as said that you should have a clear idea how the patches will be done as and when needed. Leaving them unprotected out of a network means huge risk, it not only opens up the vulnerability for the criminals to snoop in but put your entire system in jeopardy.
The best way is to have a centralized system which keeps the job of releasing updates in absolute priority. This will not only keep the devices safe, but it will also ensure the updates and patches are done instantly.
Secondly, it also requires seeing that updates are rolled back at some point and the device is restored to the last configuration. This helps in case something happens and you have to reboot a particular device. Otherwise, if left to automatic updates, it may not happen as expected and you may end up killing the entire network to attacks due to this vulnerability.
3. Contain attacks with isolated app containers
Containing the attacks with sandbox technology will also help you mitigate the damage in case an app is compromised. This calls for a mandatory access control which is critical to such operations.
One needs to understand the difference between containing apps and a walled garden approach to security. The infect apps shouldn’t, and doesn’t have to, override the operational behavior of the device, which is the open source. Since Open source innovation that drives the spirit of IoT since its inception, it shouldn’t be overlooked in the pursuit of better security.
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