More and more people are working from home. Now, organizations need a way to understand the role a remote workforce plays in their network performance and security posture. Fortunately, with network traffic metadata, organizations can easily monitor VPN traffic, whether it’s through a split tunnel or no-split tunnel.
Read moreAuthor: Justin
Justin Jett is Director of Audit and Compliance at Plixer with roles ranging from system administration of web services to technical product marketing for Plixer’s incident response system, Scrutinizer. Jett, a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington, is an avid learner of all things security, with a particular interest in TLS and DNS attacks.
How can data theft be prevented?
Corporate data theft is nothing new. In fact, according to a study conducted by McAfee, “[a] majority of IT professionals have experienced at least one data breach during their careers—61% at their current company and 48% at a previous company.” This is an alarming reality, but it’s one that we can understand better to prevent future data breaches.
Read moreProtecting your network from IoT peer-to-peer vulnerabilities
In a recent article on Dark Reading, it was revealed that millions of IoT devices were exposed to a peer-to-peer (P2P) vulnerability. Given how wide-spread IoT devices are, and how device adoption will continue in organizations, it is important to understand the nature of these devices and how organizations can prevent these vulnerabilities from becoming backdoors into the corporate network. Specifically, let’s take a look at how businesses can protect themselves from P2P and IoT vulnerabilities.
Creating a secure IoT environment
With global IoT product adoption continuing to grow, many organizations are trying to tackle the challenge of allowing these devices in while maintaining a strong security posture for the business. How businesses do this varies, but there is some good news for IoT aficionados who hope to deploy some new tech to make their jobs easier.
The dangers of IoT devices and what you should know
IoT devices are dangerous! Now, I know what you are thinking, “Justin, IoT devices provide convenience and make many mundane parts of life so much more interesting.” Consider, however, that many of the IoT devices on the market are designed with little care or interest in security. So, what should be considered before you bring a shiny new IoT device onto your network? Let’s explore.
IoT checklist—what to consider before you deploy
IoT devices are one of the most vulnerable devices that can be deployed on a network. They are usually put on the network as trusted devices, are rarely updated—if updates are even an option for the device—and are built to be deployed quickly, so security is often an afterthought. Because of this, IoT devices are extremely vulnerable to attack, and malicious actors love when IT professionals deploy them on corporate networks. After a short period, the devices remain without updates, and hackers exploit known vulnerabilities.
Because these devices are on the network, often with full access to many or all shared resources, the hackers begin their assault. The IoT devices have become the proverbial Trojan Horse, and the IT team has walked it right into the network.
Deployment guide
Okay, you now know how bad IoT devices are, and you understand that malicious actors will use these devices as much as possible to wreak havoc on your network. You also understand some of the security features built into the devices, and you want to deploy the device on the network. Now what?
IoT devices still should not be trusted. They need to be in isolation as much as possible, with only critical connections allowed. Additionally, they need to be monitored. Network traffic analytics is the best, first step to understanding what these devices are doing, and when they are compromised provides an effective way to find where hackers are trying to gain access. Network traffic analytics allows for scoring and monitoring of these devices at all times. According to Barracuda Networks, “IoT products should be scored constantly, and their security posture be published in the same way as motor vehicle safety ratings are, to enable businesses and consumers to make informed decisions when choosing products.”
To fully understand what your IoT devices are doing on your network, download a free trial of Scrutinizer today.