Explosion of Connected Assets Requires Strong IoT Management Strategy

With the arrival and deployment of faster speed and reduced latency of 5G, there is an expected surge in industrial use of connected devices. The massive growth of these connected devices increases the number of potential cyber risks, and beyond the security concerns, the explosion of connected assets requires IT leaders to re-think how they’re addressing connected asset management.

To begin with, discovering and maintaining an accurate inventory of device ecosystems is important to establishing a single source of truth to operate effectively and minimize IT risk. Doing so helps companies stay on top of software updates and avoid opening themselves up to unnecessary risk due to patchable vulnerabilities.

Visibility is also key to providing a holistic view of device ecosystems, while end-to-end configuration and audit and policy monitoring capability help IT leaders understand appropriate device activity and monitor risk controls.

“This is key to understanding when devices deviate from acceptable performance and security expectations,” says Ernest Lefner, chief product officer at Gluware, a provider of intelligent network automation.

He explains that the best way to build an Internet of Things (IoT) operations budget involves understanding the end-to-end technology model and breaking down the key components necessary to grow and operate the service.

“This means breaking the service down into its key components and developing the end-to-end support model,” Lefner says. “In an IoT environment, it’s key to know who, where, when, and how each and every device will be operated and supported.”

In addition to securing IoT at the device level, it’s critical that IT teams also consider ways to secure access and secure data as it moves across the network.

Many day-to-day security concerns originate at the network level, whether it’s network configurations, software currency, firewall rules, or known vulnerabilities.

“As with IT operations, automation enables security teams to transcend the nuts and bolts of these basic security chores so they can focus on the integrity of overall processes,” Lefner says. “Automation, particularly automated networks, is a key part of managing connected assets.”

He added “hyperautomation” of networks releases IT teams from the tedious task of managing hardware and software and associated misconfigurations so they can focus on providing seamless business services.

This level of automation must utilize AI, machine learning, and robotic process automation (RPA) to contextualize anomalies, identify the relevant stakeholders, and suggest a solution. “This allows IT teams to spend time fixing the issue instead of trying to find it,” Lefner says.

Viakoo CEO Bud Broomhead points out that because IoT devices are often purchased and deployed by a line of business (think manufacturing or facilities), they are often not tracked or accounted for by IT.

“When it comes down to it, IoT devices are often outside the control or management by IT and exist at a much higher scale than IT devices do,” he says. “Acknowledging both the management and scale of IoT devices is a critical part of forming a comprehensive IoT security strategy.”

Using an asset discovery solution should help to maintain an accurate device inventory, which then is the basis for securing those devices.