The FBI has issued several alarming cybersecurity warnings recently. In late April, it noted that there had been a significant spike in ransomware against hospitals, schools, police departments, as well as individuals. In March, it announced that the U.S. government had charged seven Iranian hackers with exploiting nearly 50 financial institutions and compromising the controls of a New York dam. Before that, it released separate warnings indicating that cars, farm equipment, and medical devices were all vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Such warnings underscore the unique security problems posed by the Internet of Things, which encompasses billions of objects encompassing everything from connected cars to energy grids.
There are wholly new business models involved in the IoT and they are quickly evolving. “As these business models change, they require more interoperability and sharing of data and exchanging of command of control across ecosystems and partners,” said John Sirianni is VP of IoT strategic partnerships at Webroot in an interview at IoT World on May 11 (pictured). “The number of interfaces—between devices, databases, and networks—is growing exponentially. Those interfaces are opportunities for loss of command and control.”
