If threats like phishing, ransomware and other cyberattacks aimed at compromising humans keep your clients awake at night, there’s not much refuge to be found in machines. Consider these points from this Fortinet solution brief:
- 2020: This is the year that total IoT-connected devices surpassed non-IoT-connected devices. It will never go back the other way.
- 16.4 billion: IoT-connected devices in 2022
- 31 billion: Projected IoT-connected devices in 2025
- 80%: Organizations using IoT-connected devices
- One in five: IoT-adopting organizations suffered IoT attacks in the last three years
Protection Through Detection
In most settings, security for connected devices is oversimplified, if it exists at all, and as device numbers grow, attack vectors expand. That’s a recipe for a persistent, sprawling problem. As Fortinet points out, since IoT devices are usually headless, there’s rarely a way to “add security or even update their software.”
Since achieving device-level security is impractical in most instances, successful IoT security requires an outside-in approach that detects and catalogs connected IoT devices and protects infrastructure through IoT-specific intrusion prevention systems. This approach can be achieved in three layers:
- Device discovery and identity
- Threat detection and intrusion prevention that protects IoT devices
- Leverage virtual patching to detect and block network traffic that targets IoT devices (acts like an actual device patch)
ChatIoT
Here are some points that may help in chats with clients:
- It’s an IoT world already. There already are more IoT devices than non-IoT devices and their numbers will double over the next few years.
- Devices are woefully under-protected if they’re protected at all. IoT devices are headless—often not even updatable—but connected to infrastructure for data exchange.
- The bad guys are in the machines (because of course they are). Never let it be said that a crook passed up an exploit. One in five organizations with connected devices has reported IoT attacks within the last three years.
- You can wrap “dumb” machines in a smart security fabric that detects and protects devices. Threat containment requires an AI-powered security fabric that detects devices, isolates them when necessary and detects and blocks the traffic that targets them. You can even patch unpatched—and more importantly, unpatchable—devices virtually and stop targeted attacks in their tracks.
One thing is certain: IoT infrastructure is growing every day, so helping your clients understand the evolving threat is key to getting them to take action. Find out more about protecting critical IoT infrastructure in this solution brief, which includes information and links to more information resources.