Qadium is offering a million dollar solution for IoT security
Security experts lose sleep over the pace with which connected devices are adding to the Internet of Things (IoT) and the vulnerabilities they bring with them. It is a veritable feast for Hackers right now as many manufacturers have no clue how to secure their own devices, leave alone entire IoT networks.
Anything from a CCTV camera to a thermostat can be the weak link that allows hackers to exploit the entire system. There is one company though that is promising a complete solution, at least for big government agencies and private organizations.
Qadium, the brainchild of CIA and DARPA alumni Tim Junio, is building a platform that will allow an organization to monitor all parts of its IoT network. In fact, the technology that Qadium is building will provide proactive information about potential vulnerabilities in the system so that they can be rectified in the correct time frame.
Qadium has been building its platform for almost three years now and is adding every IoT device it can possibly to its server. With government agencies and banks increasingly wary of security threats to its resources, Qadium has put itself in a unique position to offer a solution that almost no else does in the current market.
Venture Capitalists have seen the potential in Qadium as well with big names like Peter Thiel funding the company. Qadium recently raised 20 million dollars in Series A funding.
Qadium plans to keep adding more and more devices to its network which will give it, even more, information about potential vulnerabilities. All of this bleeding edge technology does not come cheap, though, with organizations having to pay 1 million dollars per year to be able to use it.
The Qadium Expander, which is the name of the main program being developed for IoT security, is already being used by big government agencies and some big name banks as well. The promise of this program is that it will continue to get smarter over time and adapt even as the organization adds more and more IoT devices to its network.
1 million dollars may sound like a lot but the scale of resources in question should help put things in perspective. Recently, a bank in Bangladesh was targeted for almost a billion dollars where the hackers managed to break into the secure network because of poor quality routers that had no firewall to speak of.
The hackers managed to get away with ‘only’ $81 Million in the end but only because they made a spelling error while transferring the money. The World Bank estimated that this kind of security situation is the norm rather than the exception especially in Banks of emerging countries.
Too often the organizations simply do not have the resources required to hire qualified security personnel to ensure their safety and thus solutions offered by Qadium could be a shift towards the changing landscape of cyber security.
The Qadium Expander, for example, allows organizations to just outsource all of its security needs to a third party and thus saves itself valuable time and manpower to concentrate on its core business.
There are some concerns about the manner in which Qadium’s technology accesses private IoT connected devices and the fact that it could be used for offensive purposes. Company representatives claim that those fears are completely unfounded and that its technology can only be used in a defensive capacity.
The IoT is throwing up some of the most difficult to answer security questions however it looks like at least one company has found a solution to some of them. At least for those that can afford it.
