AT&T, IBM, Nokia, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec and Trustonic have formed an alliance to address today’s biggest challenges in IoT security.
The IoT Cybersecurity Alliance combines industry-leading security providers and IoT experts, who intend to advise customers and educate the industry on the cyber security measures needed to create a safer IoT ecosystem, foster collaboration and advance innovation.
“Today’s businesses are connecting devices ranging from robots on factory floors to pacemakers and refrigerators,” said Mo Katibeh, AT&T senior vice president of Advanced Solutions.
“Helping these organisations stay protected requires innovation across the whole IoT ecosystem to enable sustainable growth.”
Alliance members believe the key to IoT security lies in protecting all devices at the endpoint, network, cloud and application layer, and using overarching threat analytics to study the overall ecosystem, as well as designing products with a built-in, always-on security approach.
The goals of the IoT Cybersecurity Alliance include:
• Collaborate and research security challenges of IoT across verticals and use cases such as connected cars, industrial, smart cities and healthcare. The IoT Cybersecurity Alliance will take use cases or business challenges in IoT cyber security to dissect and advance security concerns and identify ways to implement security across the value chain.
• Dissect and solve for IoT security problems at every critical layer of security. These include the endpoint, connectivity, cloud, and data/application layers. This Alliance includes experts at each of these layers to help educate businesses and consumers on how to protect their connections.
• Make security easy to access across the ecosystem. Security needs to exist across the value chain. Users will benefit from innovative IoT services and infrastructures that can withstand the ever-evolving threat landscape.
• Influence security standards and policies. Using each group member’s leadership and expertise will raise awareness of cyber security. It will engage regularly with policymakers and other organisations. IoT offers tremendous benefits and efficiencies to businesses, but security concerns often prevent businesses from adopting these emerging technologies. IoT Cybersecurity Alliance members will help the industry maximise the advantages of IoT while educating about how to keep companies and consumers more secure.
“Be it a connected car, pacemaker or coffee maker, every connected device is a potential new entry point for cyber attacks,” said AT&T chief security officer Bill O’Hern.
“Yet, each device requires very different security considerations. It’s become essential for industry leaders and innovators like those in the founding members of this Alliance, to work together to help the industry find more holistic security approaches for IoT.”