By 2025, some estimates indicate approximately 80 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. To give you some perspective, approximately 11 billion devices connect to the Internet now. So for every device online now – seven more will be added over the next eight years.
It’s called the Internet of Things (IoT) and this revolution is already underway. We all know our desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones (do we really need to distinguish phones as smart anymore, shouldn’t they just be phones and those that aren’t smart are called flip phones?) are connected to the internet, but more and more devices that look nothing like a computer are, as well.
From smart home AI like Google Home (Ok, Google…) to Amazon Echo (Alexa), from smart thermostats to video doorbells and from smart refrigerators to our vehicles, we are growing more and more connected each day.
“That’s an exciting evolution for the industry,” says Mike Nelson, vice president of IoT security at Digicert, a company about to become Utah’s largest tech firm once a deal to purchase a portion of Symantec is finalized. “Connectivity brings a lot of benefits.”
It also brings significant risk if we fail to properly secure all these new devices. It’s not an issue that is being entirely overlooked, it’s just proving incredibly difficult to keep pace with the rapid rate of innovation.
“Critical infrastructure is where I believe the most focus is right now in terms of improving cybersecurity,” says Nelson, noting the Obama administration took important steps to focus US efforts by way of executive order. “Any industry that has critical operations – our grid, vehicles, financial systems or medical devices, if they are taken off line – it causes huge problems.”
As a society, we have embraced the internet but now we need to circle back and tighten up our security measures. We may have started out by not caring about security as much as we should, but that attitude is beginning to change.
“You do a risk assessment of the likelihood and severity of a hack,” says Nelson. “If someone hacks your Fitbit it is going to be a lot less catastrophic than if someone hacks a nuclear facility.”
So, how secure are all those devices and what are we doing to makes sure the latest gadgets aren’t just amazing but also amazingly secure?
Digicert is one of the businesses on the forefront of answering that question. They provide digital certificates, which are key components of digital security. Simply put, when you are browsing the internet and decide to purchase something from a site like Amazon.com, a digital certificate is placed on the web server, there’s another on your Chrome browser. When you go to a site, those certificates look for one another and, if they match, you can proceed with confidence that everyone has done their due diligence.
The threats are different but very real with IoT.
“There’s not one silver bullet, there are a lot of things you need to do” says Nelson, noting that a large portion of the responsibility falls on manufacturers of devices. They are busy trying to identify the risks and architect solutions to mitigate the risk. But the rest of us need to know how to do our part, as well.
For instance, just making sure you are on a secure site by looking to the top of your browser to make sure you see an https or a padlock before you make an online purchase should be a habit for internet users today, though it isn’t always.
“That green padlock indicates that the business has taken the steps to secure the site,” says Nelson. The process is called Secure Sockets Layer, more commonly known as SSL and you’ve probably only seen it if you’ve tried to access a site that doesn’t have one. “Consumers are generally unaware of that and it’s an area where we, as a certificate authority, are working to educate consumers to make sure that when you are sharing your personal information, that you are actively looking up to see if that padlock is there.”
To hear more of our conversation about IoT with Mike Nelson, CLICK HERE.