What does the Internet of Things mean for enterprise security?

The ability to stay connected is one of the best parts about technology: It brings people together like never before. Now our desire for connectedness is being taken to the next level, with numerous devices being equipped with sensors and Wi-Fi. Baby monitors can send texts to a phone when the baby starts crying and refrigerators can send push notifications to their owners when it’s time to buy more milk. And while these features do offer certain benefits, attaching all of your household appliances to the Internet also creates a much broader surface for hackers to tap into.

This network of smart devices, also known as the Internet of Things, is proving to be a major cybersecurity risk not only for individuals, but businesses as well. With so much data being collected through the IoT, an employee is bound to share some information that can be used by cybercriminals trying to gain access to enterprise networks. This makes the corporate threat landscape exponentially bigger, and therefore harder to defend. A recent study conducted by Juniper Research predicts that global cybercrime will cost businesses more than $2 trillion in 2019, more than four times the amount companies will lose to hackers this year. Cybercrime has become so prevalent that Cisco has reported that its systems stop an average of 320 million attacks every day.

Modern businesses have to stay connected and there are numerous advantages to employing the IoT for enterprise purposes. However, there are specific challenges that arise when working with the IoT. Federal Times contributor Peter Romness shared three hurdles that companies will face when operating in a highly-connected environment.

• Broader attack surface: New devices are being connected to the Internet every second, and an estimated 50 billion will be part of the IoT by 2020. With so many endpoints, the ability to truly understand each possible vulnerability and defend against cybercriminals become an almost Herculean effort.
• Wider variety of threats: With every new security technique, hackers seem to find a way to change their programs to get around it, evolving at an increasingly rapid pace. So many devices are being connected to the Internet for the first time, giving malicious actors the ability to learn how to hack a machine before it can be protected.
• Increasingly sophisticated attacks: Just as the cybercriminals are becoming better at what they do, the threats themselves are also becoming more advanced. Relying on a single method of defense and deploying outdated security techniques will not protect businesses from the modern threat landscape.

A new way of protecting enterprise systems
So how do companies protect themselves from threats? By starting with the premise that every minute there is a hacker trying to find their way onto enterprise networks through whichever entry point they can break into first. Understanding that systems are constantly under attack and that security is based on when, not if, a breach occurs puts businesses in a more proactive position to defend their assets.

That being said, just because the threat of hackers is persistent doesn’t mean modern security solutions shouldn’t be implemented to keep them at bay. A system restore solution like Deep Freeze from Faronics offers businesses advanced protection against a variety of popular attack methods, including phishing schemes and zero-day vulnerabilities. With the program’s unique reboot to restore feature, any malicious changes that are made to an enterprise system can be quickly and easily reversed with the push of a button. After rebooting, all covered devices will be returned to previously chosen settings with any malware or malicious programs wiped clean.