EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
HOW IS THE ONSET OF IoT AFFECTING HOW CIOs APPROACH NETWORK SECURITY FOR 2016 AND BEYOND ?
In February 2016 Gartner released a report which identified the top 10 Internet of Things technologies for 2017 and 2018 – at the core of this report was IoT and security of the network . With the advancement of the virtual , networks are having to deal with an ever-growing number of external security breaches , intrusions and downtime .
The IoT introduces a wide range of new security risks and challenges to the IoT devices themselves , their platforms and operating systems , their communications , and even the systems to which they ’ re connected . Security technologies will be required to protect IoT devices and platforms from both information attacks and physical tampering , to encrypt their communications , and to address new challenges such as impersonating “ things ” or denial-of-sleep attacks that drain batteries . IoT security will be complicated by the fact that many “ things ” use simple processors and operating systems that may not support sophisticated security approaches .
“ Experienced IoT security specialists are scarce , and security solutions are currently fragmented and involve multiple vendors ,” said Nick Jones , Vice President and distinguished analyst at Gartner . “ New threats will emerge through 2021 as hackers find new ways to attack IoT devices and protocols , so long-lived “ things ” may need updatable hardware and software to adapt during their life span .”
Low-power , short-range IoT networks Selecting a wireless network for an IoT device involves balancing many conflicting requirements , such as range , battery life , bandwidth , density , endpoint cost and operational cost . Low-power , shortrange networks will dominate wireless IoT connectivity through 2025 , far outnumbering connections using widearea IoT networks . However , commercial and technical trade-offs mean that many solutions will coexist , with no single dominant winner and clusters emerging around certain technologies , applications and vendor ecosystems .
Low-power , wide-area networks Traditional cellular networks don ’ t deliver a good combination of technical features and operational cost for those IoT applications that need wide-area coverage combined with relatively low bandwidth , good battery life , low hardware and operating cost , and high connection density . The long-term goal of a widearea IoT network is to deliver data rates from hundreds of bits per second ( bps ) to tens of kilobits per second ( kbps ) with nationwide coverage , a battery life of up to 10 years , an endpoint hardware cost of around $ 5 , and support for hundreds of thousands of devices connected to a base station or its equivalent .
The first low-power wide-area networks ( LPWANs ) were based on proprietary technologies , but in the long term emerging standards such as Narrowband IoT ( NB- IoT ) will likely dominate this space .
Regional network security spend in a GCC-wide sector set to grow from
$ 340 million to $ 1 billion
by 2018
( Source : Frost & Sullivan report )
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