IoT Security

Maximizing AI and IoT Business Value While Protecting Customers privacy
admin
February 21, 2022
Artificial Intelligence, IoT

How to Maximize AI and IoT Business Value While Protecting Customers Privacy

Today more than 9 billion devices potentially utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). No enterprise or individual is untouched by the influence of these latest technologies. They are using it through their smartphones, applications, cloud services, sensors, RFID systems, and various other means. These unparalleled opportunities are skyrocketing business operations and constructing deep customer relations. 

But all these benefits come with a situation that every business needs to address appropriately. Many business owners and executives prioritize customer privacy and security while utilizing exceptional opportunities of AI and IoT, and all this is possible through CIAM.

CIAM to Maximize Business Value

CIAM, Customer Identity and Access Management, is a sub-category of identity and Access Management (IAM)that aids in improving customer experience and security concurrently. CIAM integrates digital identity-based authorization with authentication to customer-facing applications. Businesses can opt for CIAM solutions either on-premises or as-a-service. They can cause it through interconnected identity APIs on web services and applications.

As per IBM Security, today, about 80 per cent of organizations are facing security breaches, and they stated that cybercriminals targeted customers’ personally identifiable information that is PII.

As per them, a compromised security breach on average costs approx $150 per customer. Thus, management is an essential security measure every business should add. There are four primary things CIAM does when implemented.

  • It facilitates customized authentication mechanisms for enterprises and their customers.
  • It improves the customer registration and login experience by reducing the risk of a data breach or account hacking.
  • It generates scalability regardless of the customer headcounts.
  • It Impacts AI and IoT amid expanding Security and Privacy Demand.

We all know that AI and IoT will be flowering in the coming decades. Businesses are trying to utilize these technologies properly to improve business techniques and methods. IoT promises to produce new mechanisms that can streamline business operations and boost customer experiences with the increasing business workload and hiking competition.

On the other side, AI is carrying a revolutionary change in time-consuming and tiring manual jobs by automating systems. It can also extract insight from granular customer data to enhance business efficiencies and create better customer engagement opportunities.

AI and IoT are the leading technologies that support modern business. However, these come with the concern of data privacy and security. Collecting and processing data using modern technologies might compromise customers’ privacy. But organizations that respect customers loyalty and trust use essential privacy protection techniques. Organizations can raise their standards and services from their competitors by benefiting from CIAM and privacy maintaining management systems.

Security and Privacy Challenges arising from AI and IoT:

Most progressive organizations need AI and IoT to expand and know the growing sensitivity of customer data privacy. Regardless, the dawn of AI and IoT drags in security and privacy challenges jiggling user trust.

IoT Security Challenges

With increasing IoT system connection, evolution, and expansion across any industry or organization, it becomes challenging to keep data and communication safe and secure. IoT is still in the blooming stage, along with its communication protocols. Business executives and customers find it challenging and problem-alluring to benefit IoT systems due to internet-based software attacks, authentification flaws, network-driven attacks and hardware attacks.

Connecting Data in AI and IoT systems

Organizations struggle with growing pains in adopting these technologies because of privacy reasons. IoT devices are implemented in sensitive areas like the healthcare, pharmaceutical and finance industries. Without securing the authentication of employees and customers, the entire system data and privacy could face significant risk. Thus, it is essential to ensure the security of an organization’s and its customer’s data while churning the best AI and IoT.

Inadequate User Experience with Conventional Security Tools

In IoT, user experience is highly non-interactive. Customizing IoT systems for excellent user experience without compromising security and privacy is complicated in legacy systems. The authentification mechanism in IoT devices does not provide a user experience. Lack of user experience affects the business value of AI and IoT-driven systems.

Disadvantages of Legacy Security Measures

An organization that use AI and IoT systems deploy security and privacy controls to mitigate the challenges mentioned above. There is no doubt that these legacy security measures can reduce data breaches, identity leaks and control access management but at the cost of lowering the potential of AI and IoT. They might mislead that adopting AI and IoT technologies are unsafe or risky.

As per a report, senior executives and managers are concerned that AI and IoT might expose customers and employees to strict privacy, ultimately reducing the potential of AI and IoT usage in the future. These hurdles will sustain for a long time until organizations switch from legacy security approaches to CIAM solutions.

Advance CIAM solutions enables AI and IoT integration without hammering user privacy, security, and user experience. Organizations can leverage CIAM solutions that align with the business guidelines yet provide cybersecurity and privacy protection while customers interact with IoT devices or AI-enabled systems.

Integrating CIAM Enabled AI and IoT

Security researchers and CIAM providers support customer identity and access control solutions while dealing with IoT and AI-driven systems. Such effective solutions help manage the challenges of governing, managing, safeguarding customers’ access to sensitive data. CIAM is necessary to balance AI and IoT-driven organizations with customer identity management. CIAM solutions double-shield the security by facilitating MFA, SSO, social identity-based login, PIN, etc.

CIAM solutions also have classically-minted IoT authentication methods and AI-based intelligent login procedures that enhance user experience that help in strong protection upon account takeover and data privacy without negotiating with user experience. 

CIAM can provide tracking user consent, understanding and logging activities and helps in recognizing user preference at a granular level. It prioritizes customer privacy and security while generating a rich user experience in these static devices. It also aids businesses in deploying successful AI and IoT solutions.

Aligning Solutions

Organizations can manage or align CIAM solutions as per business policies. It can even analyze data extracted by AI or IoT sensors using predictive models while clearing privacy hurdles. It also emphasizes eliminating and removing data on demand when any customer ends the service or relationship.

Here are some essential points that the CIAM solution displays at an enterprise level.

Adopting Solutions

Today organizations are embracing CIAM solutions. These CIAM solutions offer different authentication techniques and measures like two-factor authentication, social media identity as login, biometrics login etc. Furthermore, the CIAM solutions also provide the service of employee identity and access management (IAM).

Maturing

The maturity of CIAM solutions assists organizations in deploying AI and IoT systems without concern. Advance CIAM solutions have direct measures addressing AI and IoT-specific security concerns. Reports state that organizations using advanced and matured CIAM solutions are 33 per cent more potential to implement plans in deploying AI and IoT than organizations with low CIAM maturity.

Advancing

Advanced CIAM solutions allow organizations to overcome AI and IoT-related security challenges. As per reports, organizations having mature CIAM solutions are 26 per cent to 46 per cent more feasible to overwhelm AI and IoT-driven security issues.

Deploying

Deploying mature CIAM solutions supports the security teams to draft a solid plan. Organizations with progressive CIAM solutions are 20-52 per cent more potential to boost business value without impacting the user experience or privacy. Besides this, these solutions also minimize customer data breaches and produce insights from the granular data they gather. 

Artificial Intelligence has different building blocks like  Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Although AI can generate a range of insights into several CIAM processes, the start of CIAM systems requires organizational knowledge, policy setup and human interaction to gain value from AI. 

IoT sensors and devices capture an immense amount of data, including device location and even status. Such data are primarily stored in cloud-based servers. The scalability and distributed data from IoT devices increase data mishandling. Such data breaches also cause corrupt authentication. Organizations can use CIAM solutions for better authentication, regulatory data collection, and compliance in such cases.

Running on Automation

Today, almost all industries have adopted automation, which means most things operate through AI and IoT. Business owners and executives interested in utilizing IoT and AI in full potential take precautions about customer data security and privacy without negotiating with user experience. Organizations must employ mature Customer Identity and Access Management solutions to integrate smart authentication and authorization. These CIAM systems offer omnichannel interactions and authentication along with track while managing granular user consent, preferences, and activities.

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How to Improve Your IoT Device Security
admin
September 20, 2021
IoT

How to Improve Your IoT Device Security?

The Internet of Things has turned out to be the most life-changing invention of the era. The concept of connected devices has simplified day to day life and has upgraded the word ‘comfort’.

Internet of things has penetrated in every section, and with time it will become the spine of all the ruling industries. From smart mobile to smartwatch, from smart energy grids to IoT enabled industry machines, smart houses to smart towns, smart bicycles, smart hospitals, smart buildings, smart fitness trackers, smart refrigerators, smart medical sensors, smart security systems etc. If you see around, you will find out how things are becoming smart day by day, promising more comfort and less ambiguity.

We can simply celebrate the idea of establishing a network of things or physical objects embedded with software, sensors and technologies to connect and exchange data with other connected systems or devices over the internet that has become an idea of the century.

But, to protect this virtual network of physical objects or devices, we have to ensure robust IoT security because it helps shield connected networks and IoT devices. IoT security guarantees that any connected device, smart TV, smart refrigerators or smart locks, etc., is safe and free from hacking.

If IoT security work is executed precisely, it will be challenging for hackers to control IoT devices and steal the user’s digital data.

Let’s know how IoT security could be strengthened to establish a more secure and protected connected future.

Risk-Based Strategy:

A risk-based strategy is a mindset that empowers you to enhance the certainty of achieving outcomes by using techniques or methods that recognize threats and opportunities. This approach can be used during operations while designing the product or at product improvement stages.

Besides this, a risk-based approach also enables you to seize opportunities and skips from losses and enhances the entire working system throughout the organization.

Thus, we can easily conclude that considering a risk-based approach should be the main element of quality management systems, performance excellence processes, including ISO 9001:2015. The risk-based approach also helps you know the risk model of devices, and you can implement relevant security controls in an IoT system.

Updation of Firmware & Software:

IoT security requires timely updating of firmware and software, improving safety and offering plenty of other benefits.

For instance, timely updating software and firmware help repair security loopholes that might happen due to computer bugs. The updated process is meant to revise all the features present in IoT devices and allow you to add or update features to IoT devices and remove the older ones. Updating also allows your operating system to run on the latest version. Suppose, if you don’t opt for updating or renewing your IoT connected devices, then things might turn opposite, and you might not enjoy many benefits in your business.

Well, updating process requires some IoT security testing services to eliminate any kind of security issues within the IoT ecosystem. 

Nevertheless, several IoT testing techniques like threat modelling, firmware analysis, protocol testing, incident response testing, etc., offer more stable and robust solutions.

IoT Device Security Features:

If you own a small connected device or having a complex IoT device network, then try to match the specific security criteria with IoT security testing.

IoT has seven fundamental characteristics; based on your need, you can perform testing to ensure that all device features are working correctly, bug-free, and free from all hacking risks.

  • Connectivity:  In IoT devices, everything is connected, from hardware, sensors, electronics to systems; this means one has to ensure that connected hardware and control systems are able of making connections between various levels or not.
  • Things: Your IoT enabled device may comprise different sensors or sensing materials that need to be attached to appliances and items properly.
  • Data: We all are familiar that Data is the adhesive of IoT, and it is determined as the primary step towards action and intellect.
  • Communication: IoT enabled devices are connected with one or more systems; thus, this allows data to communicate while transferring or sharing through devices. In fact, communication is not limited by distance; it can take place over short or long distances. Let’s take the example of Wi-Fi. We all know that Wi-Fi is simple to connect with software for audio or video calls. Thus, in IoT, the data transferred from one place to another need to be analyzed and tested.
  • Intelligence: IoT devices hold sensing capabilities, or we can call Intelligence, and this capability is gained from Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence.
  • Action: It can be defined as a consequence of Intelligence, and it can be based on manual interpretation or debates. For instance, in a smart factory, automation assists in taking important decisions to create more profits and reduce errors.
  • Ecosystem: It can be described as a place of the Internet of Things that connects to other communities, technologies, the picture, or goals the IoT can fit. The characteristics mentioned earlier of IoT should be considered while evaluating the security of IoT devices. Besides, following these characteristics enables you to check the security abilities to assure that IoT product is good to use.

    Furthermore, monitoring for factors allows you to establish specific answerability and responsibility lines for the IoT ecosystem.

Automate Security Whenever Possible:

We all know that there is a considerable demand for connected devices and endpoints. Therefore IoT deployment raises the need to identify the threat, monitor data and other related security levels.

However, the main goal of automation within the development stage will remain the same: to check the security.

Thus, it becomes necessary to check every feature of IoT devices to provide maximum protection to the user.

Data Encryption is important:

Sometimes, it is observed that many companies face a challenge in storing their data in an encrypted format. However, data encryption is the best option to improve IoT security as data will never be transferred in plain text. One can even go for an alternative option like VPN to protect confidential data if unable to encrypt data.

Conclusion

Internet of Things is serving more than expected; most enterprises leverage it to improve staff productivity and reduce human labour. IoT is a futuristic gateway to assure the potential use of resources and assets, the effectiveness of operations management, cut off operational costs, enhance customer services etc.

So, if you are planning to embrace IoT to achieve your business goals, then focus on improving the security of your devices first.

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admin
January 22, 2020
IoT

Top 13 Expected IoT Trends of 2020

2020 has just arrived and hence stir in technology is obvious to notice. IoT has been grabbing the attention since it has made a space in the technology, and its tremendous use in the coming year is absolutely predictable.

Gartner has predicted that in the year 2020, about 20 billion devices would be connected to the IoT. The IoT product and IoT development service providers would generate a $300 billion business in revenue.

So, let’s check the top 13 IoT technology trends that would define the future of IoT in 2020 and beyond.

1. Smart Home Devices:

Those who have been rejecting smart home technology and referred it as unrealistic toys couldn’t be able to resist the attractiveness of smart home devices with IoT. The IoT based devices would not just introduce automation but would assure home security and the safety of your family.

For instance, Dryers that warn you when the accumulation of lint gets too high can prevent a fire. This kind of smart home functionality would be a part of the IoT connected smart system.

Another perspective that would be tackled through IoT is to ‘save energy’. Smart lighting and intelligent thermostats would help in the motive while relieving people from heaving electricity bills.

2. Edge Computing Will Dominate Over Cloud Computing:

Edge computing would overtake the importance of storing data over the cloud. IoT has been connected to the cloud for data storage. But with the urgency of time, IoT development and developers and manufacturers have realized the utility of storing, analyzing and calculating data to a determined limit to churn the beneficial outcome.

This means that all the data collected through IoT will not be directly stored in the cloud. Data would be collected to a local device located closer to the IoT device or at the edge of the network. The data would be analyzed and filtered and then would be sent to the cloud promising less traffic to the system.

This whole process is referred to as “edge computing”; this entry offers many advantages.

    • Manages a large amount of data sent from the device
    • Reduces dependency on the cloud
    • Minimizes latency

Through this way, IoT application would consume less bandwidth and works even when the connectivity to the cloud is affected.

These exceptional features demonstrate that future technology would adopt IoT to an extreme level. The limited engagement of the cloud ensures better security practices and reduces connectivity costs. Thus the coming year would spin the best solutions from twelve-year-old, IoT.

3. Healthcare Will Adopt IoT:

The coming year would experience a big boom of IoT in the healthcare industry.

As per Frost and Sullivan, the Internet of medical things could expand to make an annual growth rate of up to 26.2% and would reach $ 72,000 million by the end of 2021.

Healthcare devices such as medical equipment, portable devices, sensors, monitor of health and a variety of other medical devices are designed in a way to connect with IoT.

Since, the connectivity of the techie as well as general people to the Internet, has been massively established, the attraction to IoT becomes a normal fact.

Today there are mobile health applications and virtual assistants to keep an eye on patient’s health through smart wearables and implants that informs the patient’s parameters and series of other smart devices has reframed the outlook of the medical world.

4. IoT Security On Top:

As the IoT is getting penetrated in the different industries, the connection of more devices is veneering the risk of data piracy. Thus, this reason has boosted the demand for tight IoT security.

As of now, all IoT devices are not featured with the kind of security features that laptops and computers have. By this year, the changes are the most expected thing to be done.

The necessary inclusions would be:

    • Biometric logins necessary
    • Artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data techniques would be used to identify and protect data infractions

5. AI & Big Data World:

Today billions of industrial devices and consumer are connected to IoT and hence, a massive amount of data transmission is needed to be processed and analyzed accordingly.

The purpose is not to collect data but also to extract the potential information from the bulk of data. For that, some seriously big data and artificial engineering techniques would be required to process all the information.

Merge of AI, IoT and Big Data would create a new advanced generation application assuring security.

6. Blockchain for IoT Security:

The inclusion and success of IoT Security would introduce the decentralization of many financial and government institutions, entrepreneurs, industrialists and consumers, making them quite smart and independent. Nowadays, some companies are observed building territory on the entanglement of IOTA to develop modules and other components for firms without the cost of Cloud & SaaS.

IOTA is a distributed ledger designed to record and execute transactions between devices in the IoT ecosystem.

7. Improved Data Analytics:

This year can surprise us with the latest invention done by the combination of IoT with AI. It could become a decision-making assistant for all businesses and individual.

AI is a machine learning system that masters identifying trends. IoT trends would expose better data analysis and assures protection. Besides this, it would also collect information from considerable data to frame better decisions for our lives.

8. Smart Cities To Turn Into Mainstream:

In the past years, states have been implementing more technologies and sensors to utilize accessible data collection tools to their full potential.

Soon, IoT trends would influence the cities which envisions investing in pioneering exchanges of data that permits access and the amalgamation of data between public and private organizations together with citizens.

The integration of IoT with receptive cities would open sustainable development, improved security and reduced traffic congestion.

9. Personalization of the Retail Experience:

IoT has stepped into the retail supply chain, making it more efficient now. With the introduction of sensors and other smart technique, shopping has become quite easy, and people can do it more precisely.

Observations and indulgence of IoT Trends in this sector would provide a personalized commercial presence. You could receive a discount notification on a product and even get the exact product you want, from your favourite store. Thus, this new addition to the shopping world would provide a personalized retail experience.

10. Predictive Maintenance Boost:

In the coming days, the home would keep an eye on every home assets and would inform you about the appliances failures, plumbing leaks, electrical failures to skip the looming disasters.

In future, there would be home care offers as a contract service. They would take care of things( issues) irrespective of your presence and absence. Currently, various home insurance companies deliver the services as they are aware of the nature of smart sensors and various other connected devices which are affected by IoT trends.

11. Software-as-a-Service Turns as a Norm:

When the IoT technology trends come in a role, then software as service is concerned as hot topics for the estimated markets.

SaaS, which requires a low cost of entry, has become a favourite in the IT gaming sector.

12. Creation of Unified Framework for Integration:

Lack of a unified IoT framework is one of the worrying challenges IoT has been facing while cooperating with the industries. Many companies don’t have a central platform thus are unable to use the trends mentioned above as they need a unified framework to keep industries safe and secure.

Blockchain will undoubtedly accelerate the adoption process with the help of allowing the improvement and development of web and mobile applications. These applications have high-performance thresholds and would help in maintaining the required data-intensive process.

13. Energy and Resource Management through IoT:

Energy and resource management would also be influenced by adding IoT. Energy management is reliable on the knowledge of the amount of consumption. Integrating products and devices with IoT technology trends would help in saving energy and resources by informing the consumption of data and its usage hours. This would make the life of people more relaxed and comfortable.

Automatic notifications through smartphones for excessive use of power consumption could escape probable risks. Other features like sprinkler control, indoor management etc. are also a smart way to reduce energy consumption.

In a nutshell:

The trends, as mentioned above, would blanket the new year promising better growth with a lower risk of piracy. Some trends would dominate the IoT app development ecosystem, which would benefit both consumers and industries as well.

No doubt, new technologies would come up to make IoT accessible and secured. So, this new year might change the outlook of the on-going technical era and certainly would be the most promising one.

If you desire to make your life full of IoT- enabled products or wish to make your product smart then your hunt ends now. Prompt Softech is one of the top IoT application development company which can turn your imagination into a reality.

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admin
September 30, 2019
IoT

Is IoT is Actively Shaping Security Needs at Edge?

Today most of the technology is spinning the best version of the industry. Many of the always-connected devices are drawing the full advantage of cloud computing, meanwhile, IoT manufacturers and app developers are discovering to scratch the benefits of performing more computational analytics on the devices themselves.

This approach skips latency for critical applications, decreases dependency on the cloud, and assures better management of deluge of data generated by the IoT.

The number of devices connected to the Internet to make up the IoT, i.e., machines, sensors, and cameras is in use without any obstacle.

IDC has forecast to have 41.6 billion connected IoT devices or things till 2025, generating 79.4 zettabytes of data. As this data would expectedly boom in the near future, the data generated will also increase. It would turn more challenging for enterprises to protect the Edge-the source of the data.

The influence of IoT is shadowing the whole globe with the fastest of its speed. The entrepreneurs are targeting to put more intelligence on the Edge using smarter and potential devices. This new advancement expands the old-traditional enterprise IT infrastructure beyond a data center or cloud environment.

Starting its way from small things till trucks, containers, kiosks, warehouses, and commercial buildings, everything is creating an ecosystem of Edge devices that does not restrain till data collection and disseminates data but performs highly complex tasks like Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the outer reaches of the network.

The shared data reflect the high risk of the data breach as no. of edge devices are increasing.

As per last years stat. 1244 data breaches which exposed 446.5 million records which comes at a high price.

Ponemon Institute calculates that the data breach cost (average) would exceed to $3.5 million, and definitely this loss magnitude is not entertaining for businesses.

So it’s a crucial time for entrepreneurs to take an appropriate step to paralyze loss-making ongoing breach and protect themselves from its vulnerability.

Edge the new future

Edge computing and IoT: A way to balance act?

The primary purpose of Edge computing is to overcome the enormous data generated by IoT sensors and devices.

For many applications, this system means to analyze and act on data at the Edge of the network (closer to data sources) than forwarding it to the remote or centralized data center for processing.

Most of the time, an IoT device processes it.

Introduction of data-generating devices to the network in increasingly remote location causes cybersecurity vulnerabilities, gifting them an easy entry point into the network that can be used to get into the core systems that the Edge devices connect to.

To sum up, today, entrepreneurs need to secure each device instead of focusing on perimeter protection. In short, the concept of the network perimeter is vanishing. Instead of defending the perimeter, the enterprise must secure each device.

Public Key Infrastructure as a proactive solution

Clutching the data breach that can exploit the IoT network need thorough data protection and device security solution. A single mistake in the security of any device on the network imperils the entire network.

Edge node security can be referred to as supreme to prevent exploitation of any access point, including proactive rather than reactive cyber-defense.

Attack vectors are unpredictable or inconsistent, so IoT protection must be updated with time.

Baseline defense mechanisms include authentication and verification of devices in the network.

It has been concluded that static credentials with a strong password have lost the potential to provide a high level of protection to escape from operational disruption or data loss.

Old-tradition-bound security applications like antivirus and firewalls do not work with the devices that are out beyond the enterprise’s network.

Cohesive encryption algorithms and certification based authentication are must be required. PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) framework can provide encryption to protect data in motion across the networks and assures that all the connected devices are authenticated.

Edge computing and IoT are new architectures that need the latest high-level security approaches. No old concept is adaptable today as it offers no security or if applied the processors set up at the Edge must have an encrypted shield against attack. Robust identity verification and encrypted data transmission are two essential components of this approach.

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