The IoT: Security and integration are key to success
The Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to have an impact on the amount of data being collected that is difficult to put into perspective. According to Gartner, the number of devices will grow from 8.4 billion in 2017 to 19.4 billion in 2020. McKinsey predicts that the worldwide market will range from $3.9 trillion to $11 trillion by 2025. Among the markets expected to lead in the use of IoT are factories, smart cities and healthcare. If the high end of the range is reached, IoT-related business would account for 11 percent of the global economy.
As significant as the numbers are, the impact on how organizations and society in general operate will be even more dramatic, bringing new business models and new ways of serving customers. Along with those opportunities are additional obstacles, however, including the need to maintain security for the pervasive technologies and to integrate the information so it provides meaningful knowledge.
In the healthcare market, mergers and acquisitions are frequent, so it is not unusual for two organizations to combine their networks, including IoT devices. “Two companies may struggle with tracking the connected devices that are now part of the same infrastructure,” says Dino Balafas, VP of marketing and product at Great Bay Software. With a background in networks, Great Bay has developed its security expertise and expanded to specialize in visibility and control.
Great Bay has focused primarily on the medical field as one with a high need for security of IoT devices, which can be a point of entry for hackers. Patient records represent the greatest vulnerability. “These records contain highly sensitive information such as birthdays, addresses and Social Security numbers,” Balafas says. “They can be used for identity theft, insurance or tax fraud, or as a way to divert payments.”
Balafas continues, “Visibility means knowing what is on the network, where each device is and how it is being used. The next step is understanding the behavior of all devices and what represents a potential threat—for example, a printer in the network should not be trying to access user data.” In a hospital, Great Bay’s software would detect whether a device was trying to access patient records. The last step, after visibility and analysis of the device’s behavior, is to determine what the response should be, whether it is an alert, isolation or blocking the action.
The number of medical devices associated with a given patient can be large—e.g., heart rate monitor, blood pressure, oxygen. In addition, devices that are delivering treatment can be tied into the network; those include infusion pumps, respirators and pacemakers. When hackers gain access to the network through those or other devices, they can hold the hospital hostage by locking up data, as was the case with the Ransomware attacks that resulted in a number of hospitals paying ransoms to get their data back.
Another benefit of network monitoring of IoT devices includes verification of inventories.
