AT&T [T], IBM [IBM], Nokia [NOK], Palo Alto Networks [PANW], Symantec [SYMC], and Trustonic have agreed to create an Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Alliance to research and raise awareness about how to secure IoT devices, AT&T announced Wednesday.
The Internet of Things refers to the increasing number of devices connected to the internet that previously were not connected, separate from traditional computers and smartphones.
“Today’s businesses are connecting devices ranging from robots on factory floors to pacemakers and refrigerators. Helping these organizations stay protected requires innovation across the whole IoT ecosystem to enable sustainable growth,” Mo Katibeh, AT&T senior vice president of advanced solutions, said in a statement.
AT&T said that it has seen a 3,198 percent increase in attackers scanning for IoT device vulnerabilities in the last three years. “As the number and kinds of connected devices multiply, so have the security risks,” the company said.
The alliance members said they believe the crux of IoT security is in protecting all devices at the endpoint, network, cloud, and application layers while using overarching threat analytics to study the overall ecosystem and design products with a built-in security approach.
The announcement said the alliance members seek to advice customers and educate the industry on the cyber security actions necessary to create a safer IoT ecosystem, foster collaboration, and advance innovation with cyber and IoT thought leaders.
The IOT Cybersecurity Alliance specifically aims to:
- Collaborate and research security challenges of IoT across verticals using cases like Connected Car, Industrial, Smart Cities and Healthcare. The alliance will take use cases or business challenges in IoT cybersecurity to dissect and advance security concerns and identify ways to implement security across the value chain.
- Dissect and solve for IoT security problems at every layer of security including endpoint, connectivity, cloud, and data/application layers.
- Make security easy to access across the ecosystem because security needs to exist across the value chain.
- Influence security standards and policies by using each group member’s leadership and expertise to raise awareness of cybersecurity and also engage regularly with policymakers and other organizations.
“Be it a connected car, pacemaker or coffee maker, every connected device is a potential new entry point for cyber-attacks. Yet, each device requires very different security considerations. It’s become essential for industry leaders and innovators like those in the founding members of this Alliance, to work together to help the industry find more holistic security approaches for IoT,” AT&T Chief Security Officer (CSO) Bill O’Hern, said in a statement..
“The explosive growth in the number of IoT devices is only expected to continue; therefore, so must the associated cyber security protections,” Katibeh added.