Security Tactics for Cloud Mobile and IoT

Security Tactics for Cloud Mobile and IoT

There is an increase in the Internet of Things (IoT) development, and smart products are the future. These have become essential today mostly because now you can purchase them and pair with them all your devices such as your doorbell cameras, vacuum cleaner bots, smart locks, etc. Furthermore, there are home sets available where you can use all these smart products to make your life easier.
However, as these increase, so does the security threat – there are several security attacks and data leaks that you’ve to be aware of. Some product teams don’t look into this matter till the last minute.
This article sheds light on some noticeable IoT attacks, the best practices for securing IoT applications and devices, and examples of security solutions.
Let’s get right into it!

Prominent Attacks In The Recent Years

Webcam: A company named Trendnet released its web cameras without security protection which was a big mistake as anyone sitting anywhere could figure out the IP address and access the camera with ease. Along with that, the company made another mistake of storing user credentials in the clear, readable text that anyone on the internet could steal.
Jeep: One such incident happened where a few individuals who were later known to be engineers tried to connect to a Jeep via its cellular network and were successful in doing so and attained complete control of the car.
Smart TVs: Most smart TVs did not have the necessary authentication options. Anyone with a smartphone can pair it with your TV and have full access to it. The same is the case with the TV’s microphone and camera, where anyone can access and take advantage of both.
Smartphones: Hackers worldwide can attempt to steal sensitive data by running exploits on smartphones. Everything can be recorded, converted, and sent via the internet to access your entire phone.
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Best Practices

The list of security problems in IoT is countless, but you can adopt practices to combat them.

Monitor Your IoT devices

It’s easier said than done – you can monitor a few devices now and then, but it gets impossible to watch every device and system in an organization. For that, you can mitigate the following security measure:
  • Configure Your network with firewalls or any other security compliance.
  • Ensure that there are different workstations for user-provided external devices.
  • Watch all legacy devices. Let’s suppose there’s an old smart TV in the conference room which had been linked to the major network – that can give easy and insecure access to the whole organization’s data.

JSON Web Token Authentication

The new and improved signature-based standards include the JWT RS256 and JWT ES256. These are extremely safe based on OpenID protocol and OAuth. Here is how they work for IoT:
  • The device must give in authentication data such as password, user name, SSL certificate, unique device ID for an authentication service that validates this data and generates the JWT.
  • The device uses this JWT to access the cloud services and API. The cloud identity services check the token every time before the device tries to access the cloud API or services.

Combined Security Tactic

Companies that create IoT devices must integrate security in the production phase. Integrating the security features in IoT after the production has taken place can be very complex, and sometimes it’s impossible. It is also going to increase your cost. Most of the time, the devices are sent back for security updates which takes up time and money. Customers nowadays prefer devices with all the latest security updates.

Frequently Asked Questions

A Microservice is the breaking up of traditionally tightly coupled application components into small specialized services that communicate through HTTPS REST and HTTPS API interfaces.
Since Microservices are small specialized services, they can be quickly and efficiently rearranged to accommodate future capabilities unknown at the present time.
Microservices are independent and modular which allows for significant flexibility in communications patterns and often prevent cascading failure.
DevOps is the combination of development and operations into a single function of software development and infrastructure management. The main priority of DevOps is the reduction of barriers to speed of delivery.
DevSecOps empowers everyone in the development process using a security focused tool set to address timely security decisions at speed and scale of each development stage. The main priority of DevSecOps is risk reduction through DevOps security accountability and governance.
Security automation in DevSecOps increases speed of code releases while reducing the risk using static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), and code dependency checking.
High business value is realized from quick and efficient response to market opportunities and challenges, optimization for innovation, and reduction of technical debt all lead to superior competitive advantage.
CCT is pleased to discuss your requirements and present a proposal for your review and consideration. Call us today at 1-800-804-9726 x105.

The Use Of TLS Or LWC

All IoT device producers must consider strengthening their devices to use Lightweight Cryptography (LWC) or Transport Layer Security (TLS). IoT devices should check certificates on the server-side and retract them if it is complex.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure offers some significant resources to build a secure IoT architecture.

Azure IoT Hub

This service allows your solution to converse with your device – it is a service bus with impeccable IoT features that are middleware. They have the following features:
  • It registers and stores device data.
  • Enables device telemetry, data insights, and monitoring.
  • Supports device-to-cloud communication, request-reply, and file upload from service communication options.
  • It helps protect connections based on SAS tokens.

IoT Edge

It is a platform that is based on edge computing principles. It allows IoT devices to run offline, integrates with Azure IoT Hub, and has modules that run in the IoT device. The function include:
  • Support for confidential computing – application or module is encrypted in transit and at rest.
  • TLS-based encrypted certificates – IoT uses these in between modules, runtime, and the cloud
  • An extra layer of security secures not only the modules and runtime software but also the hardware layer of the device.

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Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers major resources to build a protected IoT architecture.

AWS IoT Core

It includes the following security functionality:
  • TLS-encrypted connection
  • Fine-grained device permissions based on Thing policy variables.
Along with these, you can also use the AWS IoT Device Defender, a service that scrutinizes all data and device logs to identify any security issues.

The Takeaway of Security Tactics for Cloud Mobile and IoT

With the increase in the issues of IoT cybersecurity, engineers have adopted many mobile and IoT security strategies in the cloud to safeguard their IoT implementations.

With the increase in the issues of IoT cybersecurity, engineers have adopted many mobile and IoT security strategies in the cloud to safeguard their IoT implementations.

If you’ve any queries regarding Security Tactics for Cloud Mobile and IoT, or if you’d just like to assess your own needs in detail, you can get in touch with Cloud Computing Technologies today!