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IoT and Security: Cause for Concern?

Robert Le Busque, MD-Sales Operations & Strategy, Verizon Enterprise Solutions
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Robert Le Busque, MD-Sales Operations & Strategy, Verizon Enterprise Solutions
Headquartered in New Jersey, Verizon offers a suite of Enterprise solutions that enable companies to take-up new possibilities and create new revenue streams across the areas of Connected Machines, Cloud, Intelligent Networking and Mobile Workforce

The Internet of Things (IoT) holds great promise for the future. Enterprises view IoT as a new revenue stream. A study we commissioned by Oxford Economics shows that revenue growth is by far the biggest factor driving IoT adoption. Throughout 2016 and beyond, we'll continue to see IoT deployed as a mainstream path to generate higher revenue, thanks largely to the rise of four key trends which have come to an inflection point in the past year - data monetization, core IoT networks & low power devices, platforms as a service, and investment in IoT startups.

But with great promise comes great responsibility. IoT devices collect, store, transmit, aggregate and analyze massive amounts of data. If properly protected, the data and the devices can make life easier. If not, it can become a nightmare. Thus, when developing any IoT strategy, it is important to look critically at what information the IoT device is collecting, and how it will be used. And also look at how the information can be abused or misused as well.

The sheer volume of IoT devices constantly producing communications, require careful security and privacy considerations. There is no current IoT protection framework that's ahead of the implementation of this technology. The industry is keeping up with the development of technology by looking to the rising threat vectors - some old, some new - that will impact deployments and ongoing operations. Authentication of critical data, and baseline triggers for action are the emerging security focus.

How devices will mutually authenticate to a reliable degree of authenticity to prevent rogue commands and communications or data leakage is a priority consideration. Communications could be interrupted given a variety of factors and unless there is an assurance that corresponding devices are legitimate, there is no basis for secure operations.


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