Are Your Smart Gadgets Dangerous to Cybersecurity?

Gadgets, gadgets and even more gadgets. The list grows every day. They do take a lot of the tedium out of managing your day-to-day routine, but each new technological boost drags new dangers along with it. Whether you are using smart devices at home or at work, caution and robust cybersecurity are paramount.

The world of connected non-network devices is called the Internet of Things (IoT). As more devices are connecting to the internet, new security risks grow as well.

With these new risks, it’s important to examine how you can keep your IoT devices safe.

What are common IoT vulnerabilities?

Hackers have found that the generally lax security surrounding IoT devices can be an easy inroad to your network. These smart gadgets are vulnerable to many types of threats. Some of the common risks include:

Weak and reused passwords

Yet again, we have to bring up the obvious yet - STOP using the world’s reigning champ as both the most common and easiest to crack password: 123456. And using 654321 is just as lame. Most IoT devices have default passwords, and cybercrooks already know them, so replace them immediately. Since many users do not change them, this vulnerability makes their lives easy to hack. VERY easy.

Regular software updates

It’s easy to set these updates to happen automatically. Old software typically has bugs, which hackers exploit. Too many users overlook the necessity for updates, which typically include security patches.

Encryption

Yet another safeguard that is easy to initiate. We live in a world where everything requires encryption, but most IoT devices don’t have it, so any hacker can read the data, and crooks don’t bother to steal what they can’t read.

How can IoT security be improved?

There are a few tricks you can use to beef-up the protections for IoT devices. Here are the main solutions:

Create strong passwords

Most people don’t create good, strong passwords even though it’s simple to do. Always change the default passwords and replace them with long and complicated passwords and make them unique for every device.

Encrypt all your data
As previously mentioned, scramble your data transmissions so hackers can’t read them and turn on encryption when it’s an option.

Use new technologies to improve IoT security

One good thing to do is to learn and use your keyboard shortcuts – they can save you a lot of time.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is almost the only technology you hear about these days – for good reason. AI can detect behavioral anomalies within the devices. In case of any potential attack, it can notify the users. AI learns what your devices typically do and it improves itself over time.

Adopt Blockchain

For robust cybersecurity, Blockchain not only stores settings data like the temperatures, position, arrival times and status of shipping containers as they move, but it will make devices’ data tamper-proof. It builds a secure record of every action that has taken place by/to a device.

Use edge computing

Edge computing refers to processing and analyzing data generated by IoT devices at the edge of the network, near the data source, rather than sending it to a centralized cloud or data center. This approach reduces latency, bandwidth usage, and costs by pushing the processing of data closer to the device itself. It reduces the possibility of data interception.

How can we secure IoT devices?

Here are a few steps that will improve IoT network cybersecurity:

Develop written security policies & procedures

To prevent chaos, most areas of your business need to have written policies & procedures (P&P), and IoT is no different. Establish regulations relating to the use and security of IoT devices and make sure that all employees are properly trained on these regulations.

Segment the Network

Once you segment your network, you can isolate the IoT devices from other networks, so if there is a device breach, it can be isolated, limiting the extent of the damage.

Continuing best practices:

Regularly scheduled security audits

Regular vulnerability testing

These habits will provide quick solutions to problems

IoT device protection for consumers

heed the tips provided above, but do these as well:

Do your homework

Look closely at devices and choose those from companies that take security seriously and make sure the devices you buy perform regular updates.

Secure your home network 

Mostly it’s the same advice as a business network: choose a strong password for your Wi-Fi and enable network encryption. Wi-Fi security is all too often overlooked. Have you ever seen an intercepted pass in a football game? That’s the way hackers view unprotected Wi-Fi – snagging your information out of the air.

Be careful about what you connect

Only connect devices you need and use regularly. Disconnect devices when not in use – this may seem cumbersome, but better safe than sorry.

What is the market forecast for IoT security? 

Although overshadowed by the dominance of AI, IoT has been, and remains, a huge market. You can expect IoT security to keep changing. Here are a few of the trends to watch:

Tighter regulations

It’s not always a huge burden when governments make new laws although they are often late to the party. You can expect new, stricter regulations concerning IoT security. This is often what forces manufacturers to make safer devices.

Better built-in security 

You can also expect that in the future, IoT devices will start coming with enhanced security straight out of the box. Examples of this could include automatic encryption.

Enhanced user control

Choose devices that give you more control over your device security. Consider user-friendly security dashboards.