It is without a doubt that IoT and smart technology has significantly impacted the climate of the Cybersecurity field; for the simple fact that most of these devices aren’t secure.
This question can be answered by simply going to: https://www.shodan.io/
A search engine dedicated to all the IoT devices! You can search for refrigerators, power plants, buildings, webcams, all of which are online and connected to the internet. The IPs, MAC addresses, and various other vulnerable pieces of information are directly listed online. If the IoT owner has decided not to change their default username and password on any of those devices, a malicious act can easily take place.
Through my exploration of Shodan, I came across an IP address for a Cisco device over in Italy. To access the device, you would use the default username and password of ‘cisco.’ It is that easy! The use of IoT devices has greatly impacted the Cybersecurity industry and now we must find ways to secure them.
One of the oldest devices that go by the name of Industrial Control Systems can be found on Shodan. These are the devices that can control the electricity being supplied to an entire city within a power plant, devices that are responsible for leveling out water within a sewage facility, and devices that are responsible for securing nuclear power plants. The zero day exploits found on these systems can be bought and sold interchangeably. It’s almost like the Silk Road for IoT devices; and it would be frightening if this information were to get in a malicious hacker’s hands.
The use of smart devices combined with IoT has immensely changed pace of the industry. Everything from factories, machines, self-driving cars, public transit, roadways, and passenger aviation is now connected to the internet. It’s almost as if the Information Security and IoT fields are in a race of whom can outrun the other, and it appears that IoT is winning. The Cybersecurity field is simply not in sync with the rapid increase of IoT technologies worldwide. Most of this technology is left vulnerable for hackers to easily access and exploit.
IoT allows us to connect mass amounts of devices together for instant access to information without any delay. For example: The use of self-driving cars is something that will gain traction sometime soon. This would require all the cars to connect to a central ‘hub,’ or a cloud service. We all know how unsustainable hubs are. This can impact the centralized storage of information in self-driving technology. There will always be more advanced ways of storing and organizing this information in the future; but I believe that the Cybersecurity field must look ahead of the race and attempt to outrun it. So, no ‘packet collisions’ take place out on the roads.
