Johannesburg, 27 Jan 2016
Industry leaders predict the Internet of things market will pass the trillion-dollar mark in terms of value during the next several years. However, RSA President Amit Yoran believes that presents a huge security challenge.
"I think there's a data challenge that exists today that's going to be exacerbated with the explosion of data that the Internet of things starts driving," Yoran says. "And that is non-trivial and I think we underestimate that."
Yoran believes the vast number of miniscule devices will create much more data than ever before.
"The Internet of things is literally going to control everything in our lives that is not already controlled by computers," he points out.
Beyond securing the data IOT will churn out, Yoran says another problem is the current process through which Internet of things devices are created.
"There isn't a whole lot of forethought going into security, and there isn't much you can add as an afterthought either," he says.
Security is not often built directly into the inexpensive, tiny sensors that 'smarten' devices and, unlike today's computing environment, there isn't enough storage to 'slap on' a patch or security fix after a device is completed.
So, while IOT may represent the future of technology, Yoran says: "We've just started scratching the surface when it comes to discovering security challenges in the market."
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