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Security and Privacy in the Internet of Things

Observations from Privacy Day 2015
By Darin Andersen, CEO of CyberTECH

At the end of January, CyberTECH sponsored a day-long conference on data privacy and
security in the Internet of Things (IoT). We are one of the nation’s leading cybersecurity and
IoT-based network of ecosystems providing cybersecurity and IoT resources, strategic
programs and thought leadership events across the country—in other words, we bring together
top security professionals from government, academia, business and non-profit organizations to
discuss the biggest and most critical problems along implementable solutions.

Our mission is to stimulate innovation and advance the adoption of cyber and IoT technologies
for both the economic and social benefit of the country.

IoT has become one of the biggest concerns within the security industry, and rightly so. We are
at a critical juncture where the concerns around the Internet of Things can actually be
addressed before the tidal wave of products it encompasses is actually brought to market. The
issues of security and privacy need immediate attention if consumers, government, law
enforcement, schools and corporations are going to get ahead of these problems and assure
themselves protection.

At this point, the understanding of the problem has been well articulated within the security
community and is beginning to be appreciated among IoT manufacturers that will connect their
devices to the Internet. Many of these manufacturers are entering a brave new world by
connecting their previously non connected products to the Internet many times out of necessity
and in competition with smaller but rapidly growing new players.

In Las Vegas, during the Black Hat conference, CyberTECH brought together some of the
world’s largest IoT manufacturers and put them in the same room with ethical hackers and
privacy experts.

The general consensus is that we need to change product development so security and privacy
are built in to products, by design, and early in the process. Of course, this is opposed to the
way we built the Internet itself, which was designed as a collaboration tool without privacy or
security. As we now know this “add on” approach with products and networks has made
companies very susceptible to being hacked. The IoT will compound that exponentially.

Current projections by General Electric and Cisco predict 50 billion or more devices will be
connected to the Internet by 2020.
That’s not surprising considering that in 2007, we actually crossed an inflection point where
there were more devices connected to the Internet than human beings on our planet. And with

36 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – March 2015 Edition
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