It is necessary to lay baselines for cybersecurity of the IoT devices since they constitute most of the operations in the digital world

The rapid digital transformation has made several changes in how industries operate. Cutting-edge technologies like AI, big data analytics, computer vision, and IoT makes lifestyle and business growth easier with minimum costs and maximum efficiency. Although, cybersecurity has always been a daunting challenge for all digital technologies, especially when the basic capabilities of devices are unknown. The Internet of Things (IoT) is such a system that requires cybersecurity baselines. IoT connects devices over the internet and ensures efficient communication of these devices through network connectivity. Since these objects and devices are connected over the internet it becomes vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
According to an IoT Analytics report, by 2025it is expected that there will be more than 30 billion IoT connections, almost 4 IoT devices per person on average. This is a huge number and hence, there should be defined measures to ensure the security of these devices.

The US National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) has been publishing different reports addressing the cybersecurity of IoT devices. The first report titled ‘Considerations for Managing IoT Cybersecurity and Privacy Risks’ addressed the purpose of making organizations understand and cybersecurity and privacy concerns with individual IoT devices. The second report called ‘Foundational Cybersecurity Activities for IoT Device Manufacturers’ recommends security measures that manufacturers should ensure before they sell the IoT devices. The second report named ‘IoT Device Cybersecurity Capability Core Baseline’ identifies core capabilities of IoT devices to implement cybersecurity.
All these reports put light on the significance of cybersecurity in the arena of IoT devices which exist in abundance. Imagine the scenario where your home devices like TV or phone goes on the cloud and connects with other IoT devices out there and making the personal data vulnerable. Now extend the imagination towards industrial level data vulnerability. Isn’t this scary enough to normalize the idea of ensuring cybersecurity in IoT devices?

How Can We Secure IoT Platform?

Apart from manufacturers including security capabilities in IoT devices, it is necessary for organizations using the IoT ecosystem to implement safety measures for better cybersecurity of exposed data on the platform. The road of communication from IoT devices to the cloud should be tightened with safety mechanisms to keep hackers away. Continuous monitoring of the networking systems can help detect data breaches and attacks quickly and take preventive measures. IoT security analysis is a method to track the data flowing through the devices consistently.
IoT devices often project reduced cryptographic capabilities, which makes them vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Hence, IoT devices should be made in such a way that they can handle strong cryptographic algorithms. Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) and malware attacks are prominent in the world of IoT devices that disrupt the functioning of connected devices. Hence, there is a need for secured network connections and cloud platforms to protect data. All IoT applications must be assessed for privacy and security requirements during different stages of their development.
Integration of technologies like AI and machine learning can predict threats and act on them immediately with better efficiency and precision. Since the capabilities of IoT devices are vague, it will be useful to understand and leverage the guidelines provided by NIST regarding the achievement of cybersecurity capabilities.

According to the Forbes article, IoT will be connected by 5G in the future and this will increase connectivity, speed, performance, capacity, and will necessitate the need for even stronger security for all IoT endpoints. The article also mentions the ‘Cybersecurity Improvement Act’ which offers IoT-specific guidelines and management of security vulnerabilities. This indicates how there should be more policies and guidelines concerning the cybersecurity of the IoT ecosystem and devices so that device identification, configuration, and data protection becomes easier.