Google the term “frenemies” and as you might expect, you’ll find references to Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and a host of Hollywood types. What you might not expect is to find references to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams (I didn’t). And you certainly wouldn’t expect to find anything on the Internet of Things and Cyber Security (you won’t). But if you look at the definition,” a person or group that is friendly toward another because the relationship brings benefits, but harbors feelings of resentment or rivalry” – the relationship between IoT and Cyber security is just that – complementary with an underlying rivalry. On one hand, the Internet of Things provides tremendous insights into the activities, actions and potential threats against your cyber environment, which is beneficial, but at the same time, each of the network sensors that make up the vast world of IoT presents a vulnerability into the same network it may monitor and defend.
The Internet of Things has been called the next Industrial Revolution. It is the intersection between the physical and digital worlds and it is growing at a rapid rate. In a recent article in Business Insider, the author sites a BI Intelligence report: “…we forecast there will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020, up from 10 billion in 2015. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devices will comprise 10 billion.” Every one of these 34 billion devices represents a means to generate and collect data. And without proper security protocols and updates in place, they also represent 34 billion points of network access for potential threats.
The IoT revolution is happening. We’re presently in the midst of it, albeit in the early stages, and there is a universal recognition of the benefits and risks. So, what do we do? In a recent GovLoop article, ViON’s Clint Green talked about the need to invest in the collection and organization of this data. To capitalize on IoT data, agencies need a solution that can manage the complexity and scale of data collection, while providing visibility needed to understand and act on the data collected. The ability to encapsulate data into a trusted source, organize that data and derive insights through advanced analytics is the key to tipping the scales in your favor in the value-to-risk equation of the Internet of Things.
Tools like Hortonworks Data Flow (HDF) securely moves real time data from a wide variety of sources, supporting data acquisition, simple event processing and transport and discovery. Designed for the diverse sources of data inherent in IoT, HDF allows for secure data collection, prioritized data flows and traceability of data movement. The ability to securely access, organize and understand the data more efficiently allows data scientists to spend more time on analytics and less time on data management. Hortonworks Data Flow is available in ViON’s DataAdapt advanced analytics solutions – a suite of appliance-like tools that help organizations uncover insights in their data with a pre-validated platform of hardware and software.
ViON will be featuring the DataAdapt solution at the Rocky Mountain Cyber Symposium, February 6th – 9th, where the theme of the conference is “IoT is Here: Connecting, Protecting, Impacting” and we’ll be discussing this topic – how devices connecting to our networks improve efficiency, yet challenge security. We’d like to hear how you are balancing the risks and rewards of the Internet of Things. Stop by our booth or leave a comment below.