How to safeguard your network against the surge of digital assaults

The Internet of Things (IoT) is redefining the way businesses operate, offering unbelievable opportunities for innovation and efficiency. Today, IoT devices account for more than 30% of all network-connected business endpoints and have allowed companies to improve everything from customer service to operational productivity through real-time data analysis.

But it’s not just the business world that’s being transformed. Researchers predict there will be 75 billion connected devices worldwide by 2025, which means our daily lives will be governed by these interconnected devices, from IoT-enabled refrigerators at home to multi-function smart printers at work.

However, with the staggering amounts of IoT data now traversing the public internet, it has created a wealth of opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit these devices and gain access to sensitive or confidential information.

In fact, the number of IoT attacks is beginning to look like a deadly onslaught, with breaches surging by over 400% since 2022. Worse still, the more businesses deploy IoT devices throughout their network, the more hackers will develop new and cunning ways to exploit weaknesses on those devices.

It is therefore vital that you secure your network infrastructure from these dangers to protect both your IoT devices and the data being collected.

The dangers of the public internet

Generally, most IoT devices are engineered at low cost, designed to have a long life, and deployed in as many locations as possible. These three factors – low cost, longevity, and omnipresence – make them vulnerable. It’s a very happy mix for attackers.

For this reason, it’s important to raise awareness on the myriad of security threats these devices pose to your network, because literally everything and anything in your IoT environment is a potential entry point for an opportunistic cybercriminal. That includes physical devices and other software-embedded objects that can collect or exchange data.

Now, when it comes to actual attacks, there are all manner of ways that hackers can gain dramatically impact your network, but the most common methods include:

Distributed denial of service

DDoS attacks overload your network by bombarding it with constant traffic such as fake questions or requests. In doing so, your system becomes overwhelmed, crashes, and creates a denial of service to your customers and employees.

Man-in-the-middle

MitM attacks are when hackers secretly intercept communication between two systems. By becoming a ‘man in the middle’, the hacker can trick either party into thinking they are receiving legitimate emails or requests.

Eavesdropping

Also known as sniffing or spying, eavesdropping attacks find a weak connection between an IoT device and your server to ‘listen’ (and then likely steal) sensitive data and information.

These attacks are happening with alarming frequency because the majority of IoT devices are exposed to the public internet, which makes them an easy target, because that’s where the attacks are coming from today. The simple truth is that if your business is deploying IoT devices, or thinking of deploying IoT devices, then you need to protect your network from the threat of the public internet.

Granted, some businesses may choose to invest in lots of expensive software and hardware, but this isn’t going to fix the problem in the long term because it doesn’t mitigate the threat from the internet itself. Another factor to consider is the ever-changing regulatory framework around data privacy. How much will it cost to change your IoT infrastructure if these regulations come into play? All those layers upon layers of different security and software updates may well become obsolete in just a few years, and then you will need to redesign everything from scratch.

Of course, you can’t protect yourself against everything, but you can protect yourself from a lot of things, and very easily. After all, if you don't need to expose yourself to the biggest danger of all – the public internet – then why do it?

Take control of your IoT network

Put bluntly, the easiest way to remove the threat of IoT attacks is to remove yourself from the internet altogether, and the best way to do this is through private connectivity. In other words, a secure and dedicated connection for your traffic to traverse between devices and clouds. Indeed, getting your network and all your devices off public networks and onto a private network allows you to secure the entire traffic chain of your infrastructure. You can do this quickly, efficiently, and without losing business momentum by partnering with a network-as-a-service provider.

A NaaS (for short) essentially bypasses the public internet through private routing that creates a virtual ‘full mesh’ between your different network IoT endpoints. Not only does it offer advanced security features, but also provides a far more reliable network service for your IoT ecosystem, with guaranteed bandwidth on demand to support large data migrations and intuitive rerouting during peak usage periods in the event of a network outage or attack.

Better still, a trusted NaaS partner will have cutting-edge capabilities to allow quick deployment of new technologies, such as generative AI models, providing you with additional flex and scalability for all your business requirements.

Crucially, you don’t need a war chest or a team of engineering geniuses to switch to a NaaS because it comes with simplified IT processes, automated network management, and a pay-as-you-go pricing structure that reduces your total cost of ownership – all without the need to install, manage, or maintain any equipment.

But the real beauty of a NaaS is its ability to give you full control and visibility over your IoT assets. This end-to-end control allows you to accommodate any changes in your business environment, be that a physical environment, a regulatory environment, or a mission-critical environment. Essentially, you can optimize and customize it according to your needs.

As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is exactly what a NaaS provides – a safer IoT environment with improved network performance, efficiency, and reduced latency.

Let’s be honest, the surge of IoT attacks isn’t going away any time soon, far from it. But wherever you may be on your IoT journey, switching to a NaaS makes a whole lot of business sense when you consider the rapid technological advancements and the shifting regulatory changes that will surely follow down the pipeline.

By choosing a private connectivity solution, you are not only increasing the security prowess of your network but also liberating your workforce to focus on the data insights and rewards that come with embracing IoT.

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