Role of CyberSecurity in Protecting IoT Devices

Holmqvist, CEO and founder of Lastwall, described the Internet of Things (IoT) as the "addition of connectivity to normal everyday devices." Holmqvist said, companies not at all predicted a situation where the devices will be connected effectively. Spaulding, former under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, agreed that "our cyber dependency increases everyday." Yurchak said, everyone should be educated on the increasing threats with connected devices.

Currently, Internet of things cyber attack is the major problem that public are facing. This is mainly because hacking IoT devices became very simple. So, it is essential to have knowledge on defending yourself from cyber attacks. According to The Wall Street Journal report, few steps are to be followed to keep your smart home safe:

• Consumers should investigate before buying any product for their smart homes.

• As there are daily security updates, the device must be updated frequently irrespective of the age of the device

• Changing the password of the devices helps prevent hacking to some extent

• It is important to maintain a separate network for all the smart home devices.

• Make sure when you are buying new devices, you are aware of the security features of the product in detail.

"If we want to put networked technologies into more and more things, we also have to find a way to make them safer," Michael Walker, a program manager at DARPA, told The New York Times. "It's a challenge for civilization."

As the devices are connecting progressively, the cyber security in IoT is decreasing. So, there is a need to develop technology with cyber security. To alleviate cyber attacks, people must be educated on the reasons of cyber attacks and measures to be taken to defend from the attack.

The deficiency in the technology architecture and industry standards throughout the IoT is leading to the difficulties in developing security features. The safety measures to be taken by CIOs in order keep themselves safe from the risks of IoT cyber attack are:

• In order to achieve the security level, CIOs should devise a well-built governance framework for the Internet of Things devices.

• It is very hard and costly to implement security after the completion of Internet of Things system design. So, make sure that the security is included at the early design stage.

• At first CIOs are used to bid the security concepts to IoT that are identical for other corporate organizations. But it is necessary to consider IoT as a different data source and integrate security information.

• CIOs should communicate with their employees exclusively, providing more knowledge to them about the risks of IoT connected devices. There is no need to convert all the employees into an expert in the IoT cyber security.

Security is a major problem not only in Internet of Things but also in many other applications. This increases the importance of cyber security. Even though public are taking measures to prevent cyber attacks, there are circumstances that are not in their control. The industry should make sure that the devices are equipped with enhanced security features.