In early 2016, we shared our predictions of key security threats likely to hit us this year. As predicted, cyber espionage, ransomware, insider threats, IoT device attacks and attacks on industrial control systems (ICS) all increased in 2016. A number of other targets remain in the line of hackers” fire, with both financial gain and personal notoriety being key drivers of malicious activity.
Source: From Forecast to Fact: The Top Security Threats and Targets of 2016 | Tech Zone 360
On the plant network and across multiple devices, safety and cybersecurity have tended to be separate concerns. Yet in our increasingly unsafe networked world, the two considerations have started to bleed into one another. Device manufacturers and embedded software designers, need to be vigilant in order to provide a safe and secure system for applications to do their work.
Source: Safety and Cybersecurity — You Can’t Have One Without the Other | Design News
“Today, we can shop around the clock online, tap an Uber app to summon a ride in minutes, and we have an embarrassment of riches of products and services at our fingertips. We can price check countless items in seconds on our cell phone, spotting both a bargain and a rip-off.
These changes have vastly upped the stakes for retailers, which are frantically pulling all sorts of technology levers to keep step.
And they’re placing big bets on the Internet of Things: Merchants around the globe are poised to spend $2.5 billion on IoT technologies by 2020, according to Juniper Research.”
Source: Retailers Are Spending Billions On The ‘Internet Of Things,’ But Will It Pay Off? | Forbes
IBM announced on November 21 new Watson IoT (internet of things) Consulting Solutions, including specific offerings for the automotive, electronics and insurance industries.
Jesus Mantas, GM for IBM Business Consulting explained that the goal with the new IoT Consulting solutions is to help enable organizations recognize and benefit from the business transformation benefits that IoT can help to provide.
“We wanted to create an easy way for clients to consume IoT services in an integrated way,” Mantas told eWEEK. “So instead of organizations needing to buy a platform, hire consultants, put it all together and then build a business, we’re putting it all together inside of an IBM stack.”.
Source: IBM Debuts Watson Internet of Things Services Practice – eWeek
Confronting the dangers posed by the Internet of Things – as demonstrated by the Oct. 21 Mirai DDoS attack – members of the House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on Wednesday that examined the feasibility of regulating IoT devices.
Speaking before the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, experts testified that IoT device manufacturers generally lack the financial incentive to secure their products while device consumers lack the motivation to practice responsible cyber hygiene with said products.
“The market really can’t fix this. The buyer and seller don’t care,” testified Bruce Schneier, a computer security expert and fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. “I argue that government has to get involved, that this is a market failure and what I need are some good regulations.”
Source: U.S. Dept. of IoT? Experts debate need for Internet of Things regulation | SC Magazine
“As the attack surface increases with the introduction of connected devices, the attack potential grows exponentially,” the report said. It said healthcare organisations should set specific IT security requirements for IoT components and identify how they will be interconnected, or connected to the internet. The report argues that device manufacturers need to involve hospitals from the very beginning when designing systems and services.ENISA executive director Udo Helmbrecht said: “Interconnected, decision making devices offer automation and efficiency in hospitals, making them at the same time vulnerable to malicious actions.”
The report warns that there are “several serious vulnerabilities that come with the use of IoT in healthcare that are difficult to address.”
Source: The Internet of Things is making hospitals more vulnerable to hackers | ZDNet
In October, a massive denial-of-service cyberattack on internet infrastructure Dyn knocked huge swathes of the web offline for millions of Americans and Europeans, from Netflix to Twitter. It was the largest attack of its kind in history — and it was powered by an army of hacked webcams and smart devices with shoddy or non-existent security.
In short: The “internet of things” is a nightmare — a fundamental threat to the security and safety of the web.
But Google and other tech giants now have a plan to fix it.
New threats and security risks are emerging as utilities deploy Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technologies. Mitigating these risks requires a combination of cybersecurity and physical security, putting a burden on both IT and operational technology (OT) staff.The question for utilities is how they can simplify compliance for IoT-connected grids so they can focus on larger goals like improving reliability and safety, and turning grid data into business value. A recent Forbes Insights ebook, Securing the Smart Grid, sponsored by Intel and Cisco, delves into the modern security landscape for utilities investing in IoT, and explores ways to simplify compliance, mitigate risk and boost reliability.
Source: Staying On The Grid: Utilities Grapple With Security And The Internet Of Things | Frobes
Optimists at CompTIA predict the number of connected “things” will grow 23.1% annually between 2014 and 2020, at which point 50.1 billion devices are expected to be in the wild. Consultants at Bain have a different view: Their surveys of over 600 executives found that 90% of companies aiming to deploy IoT at some point remain in the planning and proof-of-concept stage. Only 20% expected to “implement solutions at scale” by 2020.
Source: Why the internet of things demands a flexible platform | IoT Agenda
You don’t need Sherlock Holmes to tell you that cloud computing is on the rise, and that cloud traffic keeps going up. However, it is enlightening to see the degree by which it is increasing, which is, in essence, about to quadruple in the next few years. By that time, 92% percent of workloads will be processed by cloud data centers; versus only eight percent being processed by traditional data centers.
Source: With Internet Of Things And Big Data, 92% Of Everything We Do Will Be In The Cloud | Forbes
