Development in the IoT sphere and the increasing amount of such devices adds a complex element to the cyber threat ecosystem.
According to Matt Tett, Chair of the cyber security and network resilience workstream of the IoT Alliance, this threat is accelerating in Australia with more internet connected devices at home as well as a lack of understanding on organisational and individual cybersecurity good practice.
Tett believes that organisations should not view security as an IT problem, rather an information security and resilience problem, and an issue sure to continue to evolve.
“At the end of the day, if you build the fortress strong enough, or that onions, you know, have enough layers, then basically people will go for lower hanging fruit. And unfortunately, that may be small to medium enterprises or other organisations that they can get a backdoor into,” says Tett.
The ability for day-to-day appliances or devices to become compromised is a massive issue for IoT security and the development of the technology, Tett believes.
A pandemic accelerated digital shift and a move to at-home work left many organisations and individuals vulnerable to cyber-attacks, amplified by the number of devices now in any given residence.
“If you think of houses, they might have 30 or 40 different devices connected to the internet, just a house, let alone organisations. And so what we have to do is set a number of not standards, but good practices and things that organisations particularly manufacturers should be developing into their products from the beginning, not bolting on afterwards.”
“One of the key deliverables that we've had over the time has been to develop what's known as IoT reference framework, which is essentially a security architecture, a generic security architecture, which enables organisations who have IoT and IoT in their ecosystem to populate a map. Because the first thing is what you know, if you don't know what you don't have, then you're in trouble. You're already starting off on the backfoot.”
Gloss