The Secret Network Cost for IoT
IoT devices are growing rapidly in both consumer and enterprise settings, with Gartner predicting 20.4 billion connected devices in use by 2020. As a tech enthusiast I think this is incredibly exciting, but as a networking specialist, that number concerns me. Why? Because when businesses and consumers add large numbers of IoT devices to their networks without proper preparation, those deployments can cause massive networking and security problems. I see this happening in two main ways. One, IoT devices increase network sprawl and complexity. Dramatically. Two, they add a host of security flaws to the network.
Luckily there are ways to mitigate these problems with the right tools if network engineers and IT admins are involved in the decision to deploy IoT devices. Let’s examine these issues in more detail.
IoT devices inherently make networks more complex. Most networks, which are configured based on the assumption that people have at most a few devices each (a smartphone, a laptop and a tablet) suddenly have two, three or ten times the number of devices connected to them. Fortunately, most IoT devices have low bandwidth requirements so the impact on overall network performance is minimal, but the high volume of added connections complicates management. For instance, it’s often difficult to monitor or troubleshoot these devices because they send very little useful telemetry data. Furthermore, the network team is rarely involved in the IoT purchase decision – that’s usually something the security or facilities team handles. The network team is often notified after the fact, if at all, so they may not know that these devices are even there! For example, I’ve heard stories about hospitals where the security team bought and installed wireless security cameras and the IT team didn’t find out until they started getting complaints that the Wi-Fi in certain rooms was slow – the cameras were interfering with the normal Wi-Fi signals.
Similarly, security is a serious problem with IoT devices in general as they can give attackers easy routes into a network when introduced without proper planning. IoT devices are often running a very basic Linux operating system with many security vulnerabilities. This is especially bad with budget devices – products from major brands like Apple and Amazon are often secure, but off-brand security cameras and digital lighting controllers are usually not.
