What the Internet of Things means for security

You’ve probably been hearing a lot lately about the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT (see: “The IoT: A Primer” at the end of this piece), while still in the early stages of development, is slowly making its way into the mainstream as more objects become connected via technology such as radio frequency identification (RFID) and the iniquitousness of the Internet.

Regardless of how the development of the IoT plays out in the months and years to come, or what specific plans organizations have for deploying related projects, there will clearly be security implications. IT and security executives might want to start thinking about the security aspects of IoT today, even if they have no immediate plans to link objects via the Internet.

Among the key security questions are what, if any, new challenges does IoT present and how can companies best prepare to address them?

Experts say the security threats of the Internet of Things are broad and potentially even crippling to systems. Since the IoT will have critical infrastructure components, it presents a good target for national and industrial espionage, as well as denial of service and other attacks. Another major area of concern is the personal information that will potentially reside on networks, also a likely target for cyber criminals.

SOURCE: networkworld.com