It is no secret that the Internet of Things (IoT) has security folks worried.
Soon enough every device in your house and office will be connected to the Internet, from the fridge in your kitchen to that snazzy Apple Watch Edition that has just set you back £8,000.
That means a lot more endpoints for IT security to manage, at a time when they are already buried under a plethora of alerts, vulnerabilities and other problems – not the least of which is explaining to the management why they constantly need more money.
Yet the problem is not merely about volume. In the past our connected devices have tended to have a screen and easy methods of input, allowing us to manage our security natively. IoT has changed that, and not necessarily for the better.
As Aaron Cockerill, VP of products at mobile security vendor Lookout, told CBR recently: "Many of the things that will be connected have very limited interfaces. This means the way people interact with them changes dramatically."
Many would say the punter already struggles to understand cybersecurity, but that situation will only deteriorate if the device in question lacks a way to display even the most basic warnings.
What is more, whilst our desktops, laptops and smartphones all connect straightforwardly to the internet, many wearables are already using the phone as a proxy. This means more links in the chain — and potential weaknesses for hackers to exploit.
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All that is without answering the question of whether manufacturers will take on the job of patching their e-furniture once they have newer, shinier and dearer bits of tin to sell. No doubt some will argue the task falls to the third party vendor they contracted to write the software.
What position that puts the customer in is hard to say at this point, though if history is a guide it hardly bodes well. That in mind, you may want to take that £8,000 earmarked for the smartwatch and put it somewhere else. Perhaps the IT department could find some use for it?
