Government Security News August Digital Edition

Convy on Net-Centric Security
Securing the Internet of Things
By John Convy, Convy Associates, Washington, DC
Most people in technology know
that the Internet of Things (IoT) is
the vast network of physical objects
and devices, vehicles, and buildings
that have been embedded with
electronics, software sensors, and
network connectivity. This enables
them to collect, exchange, and share
data with each other and with big,
analytic tools. It’s the
digital offspring of
the Internet, and it is
growing up quickly.
Connectivity is a
fundamental part of
our world, making
our stuff “smarter.”
In fact, its growth has been exponential.
According to Markets and
Marketing, Investments made in
the Internet of Things are expected
to increase from $6.89 billion per
year in 2015 to $28 billion in 2020.
Things we use every day – lighting,
cars, healthcare, parking meters,
and even our home appliances have
become smarter and more connected.
At a recent Security Industry Association
Conference, I asked three
prominent thought leaders to address
the emerging questions concerning
the Internet of Things and
its vulnerability to attack.
Chris Cressy, who leads Federal
IoT Solutions at Cisco, emphasized
the expanding value of the IoT. “IoT
is transforming businesses and business
processes, in the public sector.
Integration and interoperability
are fundamental needs that IoT
“Customers should seek out vendors that
are designing network security into their
products, and are based on well-recognized
standards, such as the NIST certification.”
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can address. Integration increases
operational efficiency. Traditional
approaches to system security are
called air gap – keeping systems isolated
– but that does not work with
IoT. You have to connect systems to
get value. When you connect them,
you do introduce vulnerability, but
you can do continuous real-time
monitoring of those systems.
Cressy also outlined some key
components for IoT system architecture
for security. “At the bottom
layer is basic IT security, essentially
network segmentation with firewalls,
VPNs,
and VLANs.
The second
element is encryption, and lastly, we
implement more advanced capabilities,
such as real-time monitoring
and real-time threat detection. Just
as IoT is a phased implementation,
so is IoT security.”
Jeff Hill, an Enterprise
Solutions
Specialist at Spectra
Logic, provided insight
on another consequence
of so much
connectivity – the
need for secure data
storage. “The IoT is driving massive
video growth because of automation
and monitoring, and that video
requires secured storage. Storage is
becoming a much larger piece of
the overall infrastructure because of
the tools that we are able to leverage
with storage, such as analytics.
We are expecting that by 2019, 3.4
Zeta Bytes of data will be transmitted
over networks in an entire year,
and security is one area where we
are seeing tremendous growth,” he
said.
Hill believes that the best way to