Is your organization taking IoT security seriously? Organizations in almost every industry utilize IoT devices to collect real-time data and optimize business processes. While IoT devices offer businesses several advantages, many companies fail to secure IoT devices adequately.
Connected devices offer unique benefits but are uniquely positioned to pose significant security risks. Therefore, securing IoT devices should be a priority for any organization that utilizes IoT systems.
This post will share some of the most robust and effective IoT security solutions available to your organization. However, before we fully explore IoT security solutions, your organization must understand IoT security risks and why IoT device security is so important.
The Importance and Challenges of IoT Security
IoT devices are attractive targets for cyber attackers. So what makes an IoT device more attractive to bad actors than other network devices? There are a few important reasons why attackers try to exploit IoT devices.
First, there is a lack of standardization regarding IoT security. There are many different IoT devices, and to this point, there are few to no security standards to protect IoT devices. This gives attackers myriad opportunities to
Furthermore, most IoT devices lack the hardware capacity to support robust security tools. With fewer security features, IoT devices are more prone to security breaches.
Additionally, there is more human error typically associated with IoT devices. For instance, while IoT devices are pretty standard, many people are still unfamiliar with them. Human operation errors can open the door for security threats.
Finally, while there is little standardization or built-in security features within IoT devices, these connected devices are often tied to critical or sensitive operations. For example, many IoT devices are used to complete actions or gather data vital to business operations. As a result, an organization’s IoT systems can be a high-value target for hackers.
As you can see, IoT security is an essential aspect of digital security management, yet, many organizations fail to implement a robust IoT security solution to protect their embedded devices and embedded systems.
IoT Security Solutions You Should Consider
Whether your organization utilizes cellular IoT devices or simpler devices connected to an IoT system, it needs an IoT security solution to promote IoT device and network security. IoT security tools protect more than your business’s data; they also help protect your brand’s reputation.
If your organization is looking for an IoT security solution, some of the most popular options include the following:
- Palo Alto Networks
- Trustwave
- Armis
- Overwatch
- Broadcom
- Fortinet
Palo Alto Networks
The IoT security solution Palo Alto Networks provides is robust and can help data centers, offices, and other facilities that utilize IoT networks secure their devices against malicious traffic. However, the solution delivered by Palo Alto Networks is more than just a network access control solution.
Palo Alto Networks offers virtual and hardware-based firewalls, a suite of device identification tools, among many other tools designed to provide visibility and protection for unmanaged IoT devices.
The IoT security offering from Palo Alto Networks gives IoT and IT administrators pre-built integrations for popular IT systems, Machine Learning features that inform risk and remediation, and cloud-based security services for quick and straightforward deployment.
Trustwave
Trustwave offers IoT security solutions that look for weak points in your company’s IoT system. The IoT security tools from Trustwave analyze your IoT network for weak points that can be exploited.
Trustwave covers your entire IoT environment, from connected devices to the servers, APIs, and cloud services that interact with them. With Trustwave, IT and IoT administrators can deploy fixes and prepare for potential attacks instead of being caught off guard.
In addition, Trustwave gives users access to vulnerability, threat, and exploit experts via their Trustwave SpiderLabs product.
Armis
Armis offers organizations an agentless IoT device security solution. Armis focuses most of its products on the critical assets in manufacturing, healthcare, and utilities. The solution starts with a comprehensive overview of all connected devices and assets.
Once a complete inventory of connected devices has been accomplished, Armis monitors the traffic to and from these devices to ensure no malicious activity gets through. In addition, Armis processes all traffic data to identify which areas and devices are vulnerable to attack.
This IoT security tool also offers automated security incident response and continuous monitoring features for unmanaged and managed IoT devices.
Overwatch
Overwatch offers active, real-time threat mitigation for all IoT devices on your network. Overwatch was created to be scalable, making it a great IoT security solution. This security solution is great for utilities, the automotive industry, consumer devices, and industrial IoT environments.
Overwatch utilizes a threat assessment tool powered by a robust Machine Learning algorithm to proactively warn users of potential security threats to their IoT systems. In addition, the Overwatch system installs on both the IoT device and the gateway server it accesses to provide robust security coverage and threat mitigation.
Broadcom
The most significant threats to IoT networks and devices are operator errors and human mistakes. Broadcom offers a comprehensive solution designed to scan and protect USB connections and other valuable areas where human operators intersect with IoT devices.
In addition, Broadcom offers a powerful analytics tool capable of processing millions of IoT events to ensure that your network is always secure. Broadcom also offers support for managed and unmanaged devices across hybrid IoT environments.
Organizations can use this robust security tool to take control of their IoT security.
Fortinet
Fortinet is a giant in the digital security industry and now offers a robust IoT security solution for enterprises and SMBs. The IoT offering from Fortinet is branded as FortiGuard, and it combines the company’s powerful next-generation firewall with its network access control solution in a lightweight SaaS.
Fortinet offers organizations easy onboarding for all of their applications and connected devices, strong user and device profiling features to tightly control who can access your network, compatibility with over 150 other security and tech vendors, and access to their latest threat intelligence research.
Final Thoughts
IoT security is not something your organization should overlook. It is vital to take security matters seriously. Several other IoT security options are available besides the options covered in this post. If you need help finding the right security solution for your organization’s IoT systems, contact an experienced IoT development partner like Koombea.
