Internet of Things and its Cybersecurity implications.

Introduction

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a vast network with connected devices/ “Things” which could also include people. These devices share data such as environmental conditions and how they are operated, with the aid of sensors. The specialty is that IoT provides a platform to collect and store all these data with a common language for all the devices to communicate. The platform integrates the data and analyses them to produce valuable information for efficiency. IoT enables endless opportunities and connections to take place. However, security is a big issue that is always brought up. Companies need to establish a way to produce necessary security to vast amount of data that will be generated.

How does IoT defer from the traditional Internet?

IoT the interconnectivity of physical objects and data, that not only sense information, but also uses existing internet standards to provide services for information transfer, analytics, applications, and communications. With the aid of wireless technology embedded sensors and actuators, IoT is capable of transforming the current static internet into a fully integrated future internet. Internet of Everything refers to the interconnectivity of various technologies, processes, and people. As a result, IoT devices are smart enough to manipulate the collected data and use them for accurate decision-making.

Challenges created for cybersecurity.

A plethora of IoT devices have soon become prey to several different families of malware. Internet-connected sensors, devices, and networks are the main targets of online probing, espionage, ransom, theft, and even destruction. As IoT-based smart grids are spanning over wide regions they are highly unsafe for cybersecurity. According to research in the USA, it was found that Energy infrastructure is a major target of attacks at 54%.

As most IoT devices cannot be updated as computers, it is a challenge not having any possibility to add security to devices already in the market. Therefore, getting the vulnerabilities fixed is the real challenge.

Tram Hack Lodz, Poland in 2008, the first cyber-kinetic attack resulted in human injury, where a dozen of passengers were injured. Ukraine’s power grid hacking in 2015 caused a massive blackout that left over 700,000 people without electricity. DDoS attack on Sweden’s transport network in 2017 caused train delays and disrupted travel services.

There are four main types of attacks namely, device attack, data attack, privacy attack, and network availability attack. These are carried out using various mechanisms such as Malware injection, the process of installing harmful software into cyberspace (e.g. ‘WannaCry’). Phishing, Hacking, Denial of Service (DoS) / Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS), An Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) are some other mechanisms.

A botnet is a common cyber-attack on IoT devices. It is a network of systems combined to remotely control and distribute malware. They are used by criminals to steal private information, exploit online banking data, DDoS attacks, or spam. Man-in-The-Middle (MitM) interrupts and breaches communication between two separate systems. Social Engineering manipulates people to give up confidential information by deceiving users into giving them passwords or bank information. DoS attacks could occur when the usual service is unavailable, which refers to the infrastructure that cannot cope due to capacity overload. A larger number of systems maliciously attack one target in DDoS attacks. Though these attacks are not specific to IoT devices, the heterogeneity, and complexity of IoT networks, are prone to such attacks on IoT devices.

How can these challenges be resolved?

As IoT devices are not strongly configured, it is an easy gateway for any cyber-attack. Most devices have various security features such as firewalls, antivirus software, etc, yet these shields are missing in IoT devices that are already in the market.

By enhancing and improving upcoming IoT applications, these threats can be resolved. Using end-to-end encryptions could be considered a solution. Moreover, proper strategy and planning are required for any IoT security framework.

Security using blockchain provides the key to data security using a distributed, decentralized, and shared ledger. Through this technique, data can be verified by minors, prevent data loss, eliminate centralized cloud service, etc.

Fog computing is another method to ensure security in IoT devices. Fogging extends the cloud to be closer to the things that produce an act on IoT data. Its main goal is to enhance security, prevent data thefts, minimize the data stored on the cloud, and increase the overall efficiency of IoT applications.

It is also not impossible to establish the security of existing IoT devices. Actively monitoring the devices, adopting source passwords, Network segmentation, and updating firmware when available are some strong methods to prevent cyber-attacks on already used IoT devices.

Conclusion.

According to the above, it is clear that IoT devices have made lives much easier by interconnecting everything. Yet these devices raise many security issues and it is necessary to take precautions during the development stage. Therefore, it is important to enhance IoT devices with the necessary security. Moreover, it is quite a challenge to ensure security in existing IoT devices.