Securing Internet of Things Devices

Protect IoT devices by hiding them from the public internet

Sectors from healthcare to manufacturing to financial services are leveraging IoT technologies to deliver instructions and commands to smart devices and to collect data in real-time for faster, more informed decision-making. With the explosive growth of IoT devices, the number of attack surfaces in an organization’s network has expanded exponentially. Every connection is an entryway into the company’s corporate network and its sensitive data.

75B

Internet of Things and Industrial IoT connections by 2025

90%

of risk professionals think IoT devices are at risk of cyberattacks

48%

of businesses cannot detect if IoT devices suffered a breach

Source: Pareteum

Security challenges for IoT devices

The challenge with securing IoT devices is that most were not built with security in mind. IoT sensors are designed to communicate and exchange data with other machines, but have limited computing power for resource-hungry security functions. That’s why traditional security solutions are not as effective in protecting IoT devices.

IoT devices are often saddled with default or weak passwords. That means hackers can use preset passwords common for IoT devices and brute force to crack unknown passwords in order to gain access to the IoT device and all the devices on the corporate network. IoT devices have also been infected with botnet malware and hijacked to be used in distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks to bring down major websites and services.

Industries leveraging IoT devices

Healthcare

From the smallest sensors such as medicine dispensers to entire operating room systems, IoT technologies are enabling doctors to make more accurate diagnoses and deliver higher quality of care to patients at lower costs. Healthcare IoT devices are frequently connected on the same network as general-purpose computing equipment making them more susceptible to an infection or attack.

Financial Institutions

Financial IoT systems collect mountains of personal data, credentials and internal banking data, making them attractive targets to bad actors. A breach instantly gives hackers access to customer financial records that can be exfiltrated and sold on the dark web or held hostage for ransom payment.

Smart Buildings

With a soaring number of IoT connections and the convergence of IT and operational technology, a smart building’s expanding attack surfaces are especially vulnerable to malicious cyber threat actors. It only takes one compromised IoT device for attackers to gain access to the corporate network and wreak havoc on a building’s critical operations.

Telos Ghost hides IoT devices from the public internet

IoT attacks are surging at an alarming rate. Security best practices including strong password policies, robust patch management and micro segmentation, when implemented correctly, provide a first layer of defense against malicious bad actors. But to stay ahead of the onslaught of threats, IoT devices running critical operations need an additional layer of robust security to defend against today’s ruthless attackers.

Telos Ghost Cloaked Services hide IoT sensors on a server that is only accessible through the Telos Ghost virtual obfuscation network, which itself is hidden from cyber adversaries. Utilizing a combination of technologies including multi-layered encryption, dynamic IP routing, and varying network pathways, Telos Ghost eliminates the presence of IoT sensors on the internet.

Because after all, you can’t exploit what you can’t see.