IoT ushers new era of security challenges

THE Internet of Things (IoT) era currently unfolding has resulted in more devices being connected to a network each day than any other time in history. Not only are PCs and mobile devices getting networked, even common household items such as TVs and refrigerators as well as vehicles are getting linked to the World Wide Web.

While this opens up a world of opportunities for manufacturers and service providers in terms of delivering yet more innovative devices and tools, it also opens up the possibility of more avenues by which hackers can target their victims, said Marco Balduzzi, senior threat researcher at Trend Micro's global forward looking threat research team.

In an interview with BizIT, Mr Balduzzi said the security landscape for IoT, also referred to as machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, is similar to that of mobile devices some five years ago. At that time, nobody gave much attention to mobile malware since smartphones were only just emerging and most of the mobile phones used were the feature phone variety with limited online access, if any, he noted.