The hype surrounding IoT – or Internet of Things – is similar to the buzz surrounding the “cloud revolution” five years ago. While we’ve seen how IoT can make our individual lives more efficient – from keeping an eye on your house to keeping track of how many steps you take each day – it’s important to also consider how this emerging trend will affect your organization.
According to Gartner, more than half of major new business processes and systems will incorporate some element of IoT by 2020. However, Gartner also predicts that by 2020, more than 25 percent of identified attacks in enterprises will involve IoT. Just the other week, we experienced the first security attack widely attributed to IoT connectivity, with the DDoS attack on Dyn, which disrupted numerous websites, like Twitter and PayPal.
At Markley Group, we understand the importance of providing an always-on service and protecting your organization’s data. We believe every good security strategy should be cohesive across an entire organization, including IoT. So how can you make sure your organization’s data, whether it’s coming from a connected device or not, is secure? Start by being prepared to ask the tough questions.
Cybersecurity threats clearly aren’t going anywhere, so it doesn’t benefit anyone to take a reactive approach to security. Focus on being proactive, and know the questions that your colleagues, executives and customers are going to ask before they ask them. It’s also important to adopt a fluid approach to security by staying on top of the latest security trends, products and solutions. If you stay ahead of the curve, you’ll be prepared and knowledgeable for anything that comes your way as the industry evolves and as your organization continues to grow.
It’s also important to evaluate partners and vendors that can help you store and protect your data. What are your partners’ and vendors’ security capabilities? What are they doing to reassure you that your company’s data and information is safe? You should be sure your partners and vendors take their security standards as seriously as your organization.
Finally, it’s critical to have a disaster recovery plan. While experts contest that the Dyn attack could have been prevented (or at least made incredibly more difficult) with the proper security measures, there are an exponential number of other cyber threats that are considerably more difficult to protect against. And while your organization should be taking every precaution necessary to prevent data from being stolen or networks being knocked offline, it’s important that every person in your IT department is aware of what protocols to take when faced with a cyberattack.
If you’re considering how IoT will impact your organization’s security, feel free to get in touch with Markley Group’s team of security experts and we’d be happy to discuss best practices for making sure your data is always safe. Send us an email at info@markleygroup.com.
