As technology continues to evolve and more industries across the globe become connected, understanding the security challenges linked with the industrial internet of things (IoT) deployments is increasingly important.
Businesses planning to roll out a manufacturing or industrial IoT initiative, or link existing technology for automated and remote monitoring or access, will need to consider all of the potential threats and attack vectors linked with those decisions. The most common security challenges with industrial IoT security are as follows:
Security Breach Via Old Systems
The surge in the volume of IoT apps has made it easier for malicious hackers to identify vulnerabilities to infiltrate organizational data. The operation of multiple IoT devices through the same internet connection makes it easier for attackers to exploit them as a point of illegal access to other resources. This lack of network segmentation can be devastating, as one successful assault on an IoT device can open the door to attackers to siphon sensitive data.
To safeguard IoT-powered enterprises from data breaches, it’s important to boost the security of the devices with a hardware-based VPN technology and execute a real-time monitoring solution that will continuously scan and report the behavior of the linked devices.
DDoS Attack
The hackers can target businesses' endpoint devices by flooding them with overwhelming traffic so that they cannot complete the work they were intended to do.
For example, when an industrial thermostat is linked to unprotected internet, a coordinated DDoS attack on the entire system could lead to system downtime. One of the best ways to mitigate this type of IIoT threat is to safeguard internet connection with a firewall.
Device Spoofing
In IIoT, a device spoofing assault is launched when the hackers pose themselves as a legitimate device to send information between businesses' centralized network and the IIoT endpoint device.
For example, the hacker can pose a trusted IoT sensor to send back false information that could alter an organization’s manufacturing process. However, this risk can be mitigated by employing a hardware-based security solution.
Device Theft
Another common issue, particularly with devices out in the field, is the theft of the physical devices themselves. This threat increases when endpoint devices are storing critical data that may cause concern if that information is stolen by the attackers.
To minimize the threat, it’s necessary to avoid storing sensitive information on endpoint devices and use cloud-based infrastructure to store critical data.
Data Siphoning
The smooth deployment of data by endpoint devices can be blocked via an eavesdropping attack. What the hacker does here is eavesdrop on the network traffic from the endpoint device to secure access to collected data.
The industries most impacted by this type of IoT attack are the health, security, and aerospace industries. To mitigate the threat, organizations must have a security policy ensuring that all transmitted data is adequately encrypted using the best encryption software.
“Organizations need to think through this. There are a lot of requirements and they need to figure out a strategy. When looking at product security requirements, I see this as a challenging aspect as organizations get a handle around what they are manufacturing,” Robert M. Lee, CEO at Dragos Incorporation raised a concern regarding organizations' security.
“There are organizations for example in industries such as health care, medical devices, and power and utilities that are starting to ask questions of their suppliers as they consider security before they deploy devices into their customer ecosystem. Where I see a lot of organizations struggle is in understanding system misconfiguration or not having the architecture, they thought they did in order to make sure their manufacturing environment is reliable.”