In a Forbes article<\/a> this month, tech thought leader and author Bernard Marr shared that while IoT has historically been recognized as a specific threat, he expects these threats to become more common, widespread, and sophisticated in 2022. And considering that Gartner\u2019s recent research<\/a> predicts that more than half of organizations (60%) will view cybersecurity risk as a leading factor in choosing business vendors and partners by 2025, it\u2019s clear to see the importance of taking action to secure your IoT device now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what can you do to make your IoT deployments and enterprise IT systems more secure in the coming year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s hash it out.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing destroys customer trust faster than sending them an email stating that their sensitive data is compromised because you didn\u2019t bother to secure your smart thermostat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having strong IoT security is not just a cyber security best practice, it\u2019s a \u201cmust\u201d if you value customer relationships and the security of their data. IoT devices represent an open door to your network (and other devices that are connected to it). But that\u2019s not the only problem \u2014 these devices also serve as potential threats if an attacker gains control and assimilates them into their botnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As botnet drones (or \u201czombies\u201d as they\u2019re sometimes called), your devices are part of a large network of connected devices that the attacker controls. When this happens, your devices can be used to carry out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With this in mind, it\u2019s easy to see why making your IoT solutions as secure as possible as quickly as possible should be one of your top cybersecurity priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This guide aims to provide a quick overview of the steps you can take to make your network and general IT environment more secure by mitigating IoT security-related vulnerabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your organization\u2019s cyber defenses are like an invisible wall, and shadow IT devices represent the unseen security gaps in it: you can\u2019t plug the holes (i.e., mitigate vulnerabilities) if you don\u2019t know they exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shadow IT<\/a> is a term that describes unknown or unauthorized software, devices, and digital certificates that exist within your tech environment. According to 2021 data from Proofpoint and the Ponemon Institute<\/a>, three-quarters (75%) of IoT security experts are concerned about shadow IT and view it as a \u201csignificant security risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t know what devices are on your network, then it\u2019s also likely that you don\u2019t know who has access to them. As such, having even one insecure device on your network can lead to a world of hurt that can impact your business and customers in several ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To avoid these security issues and the costs associated with them, a good approach is to use every tool at your disposal to make your systems and devices more secure. This includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s no secret that bad guys love data, and your IoT devices represent a wealth of useful and actionable information they can use. While having access to all of the information that smart devices afford is great for you, if those devices aren\u2019t secure, then it can spell disaster because that data can fall into the wrong hands. One way to make your device and its data transmissions more secure is to use public key cryptography. (More on that in a moment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Research from Paolo Alto Networks\u2019 2020 Unit 42 IoT Threat Report<\/a> shows that 98% of IoT device traffic is insecure, meaning that any personal or confidential data can be intercepted, read, or modified by unintended parties in transit. But what kinds of information can be exposed via these unprotected connections? Here are a few quick troublesome examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To avoid this issue, install a valid IoT device certificate on every connected device and ensure all communications are fully authenticated and encrypted.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/span><\/span>\n\n\n\n We recently published an article that was a deep-dive on the topic of PKI device certificates<\/a>. We\u2019re not going to get into the nitty-gritty of all that here. To quickly recap:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what does all of this mean in terms of benefiting your organization? Using a PKI device certificate for IoT:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A common PKI certificate management best practice is to use a certificate management tool to track and monitor all of the digital certificates that exist within your network and IT infrastructure. By installing a PKI device certificate on each IoT component before deployment, you\u2019re creating another way to keep track of your devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to staying abreast of when certificates are set to expire, using a device certificate also helps you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A common (yet bad) practice many IoT device manufacturers have historically done is issue default access credentials to their products. These are typically hard-coded usernames and passwords that may be used during development and testing, for users\u2019 device setup\/admin purposes, or while performing updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While this practice isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing while limited to these dev and testing environments, it can be bad news when those credentials are still in place when the devices are deployed in end-user organizations\u2019 IT environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adam Kohnke, Information Security Manager at Infosec Institute<\/a>, shared the following statement in our related article on IoT security<\/a> insights and tips:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe network interface provided by IoT devices may provide external internet connectivity to would-be attackers. IoT device manufacturers also typically leave default access credentials in place for the devices they ship. These two conditions together leave enterprises vulnerable and prone to unauthorized remote access attacks.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n One of the biggest mistakes companies make is connecting their devices to their main critical network. While this may seem like a good idea, it\u2019s actually dangerous. If there\u2019s even a single vulnerability in one of those devices, which is likely, then cybercriminals can exploit it and use it as an open door to your network. And once they\u2019re on your network, they can move laterally to other endpoints by searching for other vulnerabilities they can use on your network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keeping your IoT devices off your main network serves as a bulwark to prevent attackers from gaining access to other critical systems that are connected to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rolling out updates and patches to fix vulnerabilities is how most manufacturers keep their products secure over time. This is true for firewall software companies to IoT device manufacturers alike. But when it comes to IoT devices, not all companies bother following through with this crucial security function. Once their devices hit the market, if they don\u2019t bother releasing patches, it means that any discovered vulnerabilities will serve as weaknesses within your IT environment that cybercriminals can exploit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why it\u2019s important to choose IoT devices from manufacturers that are known for having a serious stance when it comes to security. When researching devices and manufacturers, be sure you check to see whether they support their products with regular updates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But another critical aspect of updating and patching is using them. While it\u2019s important for manufacturers to release those patches to fix security issues, those updates won\u2019t do you any good if you don\u2019t bother applying them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To better understand the benefits of good patch management practices, let\u2019s consider how automobile safety has evolved over the years. For decades, passenger vehicles were developed without seatbelts. Over time, manufacturers realized that lack of restraint served as a vulnerability when it came to driver and passenger safety, so they added airbags and seatbelts to help \u201cfix\u201d the issue. (The exception here are mass transit vehicles such as buses \u2014 many of these vehicles don\u2019t have seat belts.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if you don\u2019t bother using the seatbelt when you\u2019re driving or riding in the vehicle, even though using a seatbelt is required by law in many places, the safety device won\u2019t do you any good. This same concept also applies to patching IoT devices. In this scenario:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve made it this far, we hope you\u2019ve found this resource useful. While this article is in no way comprehensive, our hope is that it at least serves as a starting point for planning how to secure your organization\u2019s IoT devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main takeaway is that if you\u2019ve not yet taken steps to secure your IoT technologies and networks, there\u2019s no time like the present. The longer you wait, the more your organization and customers are at risk to cyber attacks, data compromise, and broken trust. Not only do you face percussions in terms of noncompliance issues and related financial losses, but this damage may be irreparable and cost you relationships with some customers indefinitely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Please be sure to share your thoughts and other tips for how to secure IoT devices within enterprise environments in the comments below…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" IoT security is an often-neglected area within an enterprise\u2019s IT infrastructure. Unfortunately, this makes these smart devices the perfect targets to breach your organization\u2019s security defenses. Here\u2019s a quick list…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":15296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3802,13134,13150],"class_list":["post-15294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hashing-out-cyber-security","tag-iot","tag-iot-security","tag-secure-devices","post-with-tags"],"views":8271,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/how-to-secure-iot-devices-feature-image.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How to Secure IoT Devices to Make Your Enterprise IT Ecosystem More Secure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.thesslstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/how-to-secure-iot-devices-cityscape-connected-devices-1024x640.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1. Continually Monitor Your Network & Perform Regular IT Audits to Know What\u2019s Connected It<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Use IoT Device Certificates to Secure Your Devices and Sensitive Data<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What Is an IoT Device Certificate?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Using IoT Certificate Management Also Increases Visibility of Devices on Your Network<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
3. Avoid Using the Manufacturer\u2019s Default Access Credentials for Device Management<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Segregate Your IoT Devices from Critical IT Assets by Keeping Them On a Separate Network<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5. Update & Patch Your IT Systems and Devices Regularly<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Applying IoT Device Patches Is Like Wearing a Seatbelt to Avoid Injury\u2026<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Final Takeaways on Securing IoT Devices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n