Cybersecurity is the new chief concern for every organization. Recent global attacks like Wannacry and NotPetya have proved that hackers aren’t sparing any institution in their latest show of might. Most companies have thus resulted in the internet of things, and it’s cybersecurity features to help keep their digital assets safe. But does IoT offer the much needed online security?
Analysts agree on the fact that the current technological advancements have rendered the IoTs online security features ineffective. Contrary to their intended functions, some of these interconnected devices have, in the recent past, been used by cybercriminals to access company data. For instance, hackers recently exploited a vulnerability on amazon’s echo to infiltrate company’s using the devices.
Note that while Amazon might have provided a patch for that, there is no telling what other vulnerabilities they will find in other IoT devices. There is, therefore, the need to address the influence IoT will have on the future of cybersecurity. These include:
Exposing weaknesses in traditional cybersecurity
If the latest cybersecurity threats are anything to go by, then it is clear that conventional online security mechanisms like antivirus and staff awareness can’t adequately protect your digital assets today. The massive uptake of IoT across all industries has helped unearth numerous security challenges affecting both the network systems and connected devices.
Manufacturers and developers can, therefore, learn from the current challenges facing their innovations and improve on them with future technologies. Online security experts are nonetheless worried about the manufacturers’ sluggish response to online security threats as they continue to introduce inadequately protected devices into the market.
Reduce human activity in cybersecurity
Human beings have, for long, been considered the soft underbellies and weak links when it comes to institutional cybersecurity. Despite the enormous resources company’s set aside for staff education on the importance of online security and different activities that put company assets under threat, human error still leads the pack of activities endangering a company’s cyber environment.
Champion the introduction of intelligent cybersecurity
In appreciation of the role human beings play in exposing digital assets to cyber threats, future IoT may turn its attention towards less human interactive systems. Online security companies have already come up with intelligent security systems that help mitigate against these threats. These include the network monitoring tools aimed at continually keeping tabs with a company’s or IoT systems online activities and reporting them in real time.
Advancements in technology and the fusion of artificial intelligence with IoT might see the introduction of more intelligent systems that not only report suspicious online activities but also takes appropriate actions like quarantining them. Technological giants have even come up with smart systems that help identify loopholes in an IoT system like helping identify private data appearing on public domains.
Revolutionize how people share information
How you store, process, and share data over the internet births any cyber threat facing your organization. Most institutions understand this fact and have, therefore, come up with several strategies on how to secure each part of the data sharing process by insulating the input, storage, processing, and sharing systems from cyber attacks by way of high-bit end-to-end encryption techniques.
Human involvement in any of these data sharing stage translates to reduced security features as humans can’t read encrypted files. This in effect exposes the entire system to vulnerabilities that hackers can use to terrorize your organization.
IoT seeks to revolutionize this process by eliminating human error in the data storage and sharing. Considering the fact that IoT is primarily machine to machine communication, IoT security experts can help come up with stronger protection controls that only the interconnected devices can decipher.
Bottom line
The internet of things is about to champion a revolution in cybersecurity that starts with eliminating cases of human error. These will be replaced by the more reliable intelligent systems and will affect the entirety of data processing, from capture through to sharing.