By IoT has led the chart of the trending technologies throughout the year 2019 and it is expected to maintain the position even in the year 2020. Considering its advantages, many industries from mining to health-care to micro-mobility are adopting the IoT technology widely.
In the last few years, IoT technology has witnessed dramatic growth. In the year 2018, the global IoT market grew 37% from 2017 and reached $151 Billion in 2018. Even in the upcoming years, the global IoT market is anticipated to grow beyond our wildest dreams. According to Ericcson, the number of cellular IoT connections is expected to reach $3.5 billion in 2023, increasing at a CAGR of 30%.
However, there is a major threat to IoT devices and it is IoT device security. In the last few years, the number of cases of IoT security breaches has raised at an alarming rate. A few evil firms and even individuals are targeting the connected IoT devices to collect the data and use it for illegal purposes. And surprisingly, almost 96% of the security experts expect to double the similar cases in 2020.
Luckily, a few IoT app development companies and security experts have developed many measures to create an unhackable IoT software environment. And we are going to discuss the same in this blog. But before discussing it, let’s first take a look at the most notable IoT security breaches.
Most notable IoT security breaches of the history
Following are the worst IoT security breaches of the history which have effected the many users and IoT device manufacturers.
The Silex Malware thrashed many IoT devices storage, dropped firewall rules, removed the network configuration and halted the service. Surprisingly, the malware was spread by a 14-year-old teen.
In 2010, the first IoT data breach case came into light. A virus named Stuxnet was used to physically damage the Iranian centrifuges.
In December 2013, the first of its kind IoT botnet was caught by a security firm. That botnet was basically a group of hacked IoT devices, co-opted for illegal activities.
In 2015, two security experts executed a wireless attack to the Jeep car to show how vulnerable a connected car is to a devastating attack. They changed the radio station, turned on the car’s rain wipers and AC, killed the engine and even disabled the brakes.
In 2019, a Couple from America witnessed a very bizarre IoT attack. An attacker has hacked camera of the baby monitor device.
So, If you being the owner of the IoT app or IoT device don’t want to be a victim of one such attack, you along with your hired IoT app development company should take these 8 security measures into account.
IoT security measures
Following are the most proven and effective security measures you should take to actualize the one of the most secured IoT software environment.
- Credentials
A lot of people never bother to change the default password. And even if they change the password, they choose a very common password, assuming that they will never be the victim of the IoT attack. According to a password management security company, SplashData, almost 10% of users choose one of the 25 most common IoT passwords.
To address this issue, you as the app owner can request your hired app development company to add a module which asks the users to change the password as soon as he opens the app. And if the app owner is authorized to change the default password, he should have a module in the admin panel from where he can directly change the default password of every IoT device.
- PKI and X.509 Digital Certificate
The PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) is the most vital measure to enable users and system to communicate securely. Whereas, the X.509 digital certificate is widely accepted PKI standard which is used to verify the key belonging user or not.
- API security
The application programming interface (API) is the easiest way for hackers to get access to the system and satisfy their goals. This is the reason why API security testing is the fundamental IoT security measure in order to achieve a safe software environment. API testing includes best practices such as DRY, Clarity, Mapping & Execution, Prerequisites and cleanup.
- Identity management
Every IoT manufacturer should give a unique identification number to each IoT device. This is done to understand the device behaviour and its interaction with other devices. This also makes it easy to identify infected devices.
- Network security
An IoT device is the connected device and it communicates with other devices and mobile app over the network. So, by just protecting the network, you can achieve the much safer IoT software environment. However, in order to protect the network, you should follow the few steps or best practices.
- You should ensure port-security.
- You should disable port-forwarding.
- You should not open the port until it is needed.
- You should use antimalware.
- You should deploy a machine learning-based IDS (Intrusion detection system).
- You should block unauthorized IP addresses.
- Software updates
Developing an IoT app or manufacturing an IoT device with all IoT security best practice guarantees you the short-term security which can be breached after a few days. To avoid this, you have to keep rolling out updates for IoT device as well as IoT software. For that, you are required to keep a watch on all latest IoT news, technology and any new IoT security measures.
- Security gateways
You have to employ one or more security gateways and there is a reason behind it. Every IoT device is equipped with an IoT controller which controls the device. This IoT controller has very less processing power, memory and ability to add resource-heavy features like firewalls. Whereas, a security gateway which is nothing but an intermediary between the IoT device and the network, has more processing power, memory and abilities to host many resource-heavy security features.
About the Author
Vishal Virani is a Founder and CEO of Coruscate Solutions, a leading e-scooter app development company. He enjoys writing about the vital role of mobile apps for different industries, custom web development, and the latest technology trends.
