IoT Security: The Wildcard in Your Environment

Internet of Things (IoT) device security is proving to be a major entry point for attackers and a headache for administrators and security personnel. The ease and simplicity with which these devices can be onboarded and connected is what also makes them a major, often-unseen corporate security hazard. Once online, these devices are typically “always-on”. As a result, hackers have 24x7 ability to gain access and funnel data out at will. Further, these devices are notorious for having security issues, maintaining default credentials, and for an inability to upgrade or patch – all of which lead to significant vulnerabilities ripe for exploiting.

These security gaps are not hypothetical. The Appgate team recently released its findings from a 15-month research project titled “The Detection of Threats to IoT Devices Using Scalable VPN-Forwarded Honeypots,” which showed that IoT devices are under “constant attack” from attackers focusing on leveraging zero-day vulnerabilities.

Further, 2018 saw the discovery of the VPN Filter malware and a huge, related botnet. Together, they affected roughly 70 different devices, mostly home/Soho routers and NAS devices. With the number of IoT devices and use cases expected to double each year for the foreseeable future, this “unmanaged” attack surface must not be overlooked by enterprises.

We believe this is a significant issue that organizations must begin to address now. We are pleased to announce IoT Connector, a feature within Appgate SDP that secures unmanaged and undermanaged IoT devices. These too-often overentitled devices can now be protected with an innovative approach that provides 360-degree perimeter protection. This solution isolates IoT resources using our Zero Trust model, much in the same way we currently protect cloud and data center resources.

Whether you are dealing with “Legacy IoT” devices such as printers and IP phones, or emerging categories like sensors, medical devices, and supply chain devices, Appgate SDP provides a common policy, audit, and architecture to administer complex connectivity interrelationships across your entire infrastructure. Most importantly, it limits ‘cross-contamination’, ensuring that a single IP camera or wireless router doesn’t become your downfall.

It is a fact that all industries will soon be impacted with a myriad of new IoT devices enabled by 5G and ultra-low power sensors that provide decades of battery life. These millions of devices cannot be a security after-thought. One-off security measures will only serve to restrict manageability, limit responsiveness, and provide a false sense of security.

Appgate SDP’s IoT Connector provides manufacturers, franchises, healthcare systems, and other verticals with complex device security needs a single view of users, servers, and now device access -- all easily managed with policies and controls that limit the attack surface per unique role.

Each Appgate IoT Connector instance is designed to scale for both volume and throughput, and able to handle a wide array of today’s IoT devices. From periodic telemetry data from thousands of sensors to full-motion video streams from IP cameras, Appgate isolates and limits access to prevent lateral attacks while allowing devices to seamlessly perform their functions. Appgate operates in-line and can be easily deployed without replacing existing hardware or software. Standard with Appgate is the ability to integrate threat intelligence, reporting, or visualization to provide proactive actions and real-time responses to mitigate attacks.

To learn more about how to protect your organization’s IoT devices, take a look at the IoT Connector use case.