The Importance of IoT Security

Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of different tech devices that are all connected to each other. IoT brings increased capacity for connectivity and processing. This is a big difference from the limitations that are usually taken into account when thinking about security in distributed systems.

However, there are increasing concerns regarding the safety of the devices that make up the Internet of Things ecosystem, which is about to bring a flood of new products and services.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is solving problems for consumers, businesses, and governments and it is laying the groundwork for a data-driven revolution. For example, Amazon products like Alexa have made their way into many homes over the past few years. In the not-too-distant future, we will all be able to connect to anything and everything, from cars that drive themselves to toasters with built-in intelligence.

IoT devices are becoming a more common phenomenon, with Amazon products like Echo and Alexa gaining a lot of popularity with consumers. However, there are also serious security risks with IoT devices. As time goes by, more devices are being connected to the internet, making it harder to make sure that they are safe. IoT devices can't do what they're supposed to do unless they have secure hardware, software, and connections. 

Without Internet of Things (IoT) security measures, any connected device, from refrigerators to industrial robots, could be hacked. Once they have control, hackers might be able to take over how the device works and steal the owner's digital information. Safety should not be overlooked when connecting industrial devices to the Internet of Things.

In short, the goal of security for embedded Internet of Things devices is to keep assets from being attacked by bad people. People usually think of this kind of security in terms of protecting assets like cryptographic keys and controlling how software and data can be changed. The devices and services that make up the Internet of Things (IoT) need to have good security if the IoT is going to work.

Platforms are working on improving IoT security

As the IoT space lags behind in terms of security practices, it overwhelmingly relies on costly patching to combat known vulnerabilities. This reactive strategy is notoriously costly, slow, and difficult to implement, owing to the often isolated and/or embedded nature of IoT devices and the increased velocity with which new vulnerabilities are disclosed. Moreover, even when fully mastered, it offers no protection from zero-day vulnerabilities.

When trying to minimize the reliance on patching through the use of other integrated security solutions, organizations oftentimes face a cumbersome deployment process and unacceptable overhead for the target device, resulting in poorer performance. This turns even a trial of a security product into a major investment of time and resources. 

With its free license, lightweight footprint solution, and agile deployment model, Sternum offers companies a way around these issues, empowering the OpenWrt community to easily experience a new standard for security and observability.

Sternum, the pioneer in autonomous IoT security and observability, unveils a no-time-limit free license for its platform. Using this license, users will be able to deploy Sternum for free on any OpenWrt device. This is in addition to the premium license Sternum provides for RTOS devices (e.g., Zephyr, FreeRTOS, VxWorks, Micrium, etc.) and all other embedded Linux distributions. Users can access the free license at https://app.Sternum.Cloud/Home. 

Through a fast-paced in-field deployment process lasting just a few minutes, owners of OpenWrt devices will be able to deploy Sternum for free on up to three pieces of hardware. This will provide them with a true first-hand experience of all of the security and observability features of the company’s patented EIV (Embedded Integrity Verification) and ADS (Analytics & Detection System) technologies. 

“Integrating IoT security is perceived to be complicated to deploy and detrimental to the performance of the very devices it aims to protect,” says Natali Tshuva, CEO and Co-Founder of Sternum. 

“We decided to open our platform to OpenWrt community to show that it doesn’t have to be this way. By providing robust no-strings-attached security for home users and small businesses, our goal is to drive a paradigm shift and pave a way for a more standardized, secure, and competent IoT ecosystem.”

The free Sternum platform license allows the product to speak for itself, putting the company on track for trust-led growth and showcasing its commitment to OpenWrt security. 

OpenWrt is a popular open-source Linux distribution that powers millions of routers, including those deployed at critical infrastructure hubs. Although versatile, powerful, and effective, it is still vulnerable to exploits ranging from remote code execution to buffer overflow, which give hackers the means to take control of a device. A successful IoT hack exploiting these vectors can take a major toll on a business, resulting — amongst other things — in downtime and data loss.    

Conclusion

In order to keep IoT devices safe, there must be enough security in every system and level of the infrastructure. Techniques that can scale up into a "building block" form will be needed since this will let designers use security protocols that have already been made on everything from low-cost microcontrollers to high-performance application processor systems.

Developers who are just starting out within the information security sector and also have to worry about things like battery life, form factor, and user interfaces might find it hard to learn how to keep their devices, data, and services safe.

When you look at the issues regarding security within the IoT ecosystem, it becomes there that it's a system problem. How can high-value keys be shared and kept safe in an Internet of Things setting? What safety protocols are being used for the software that the business can't do without? How does the device's life-cycle management work? 

For data to stay private while it's being sent by air, there needs to be some kind of security communication protocol. We need to think about the right level of security for both our things and the way we use this device.

Since many Internet of Things devices will be made by people who aren't trained in information security, it's important that the solutions to these problems are easy to use and can be adapted to a large range of use cases.