RSA President: We 'Underestimate' Security Risks In Internet Of Things

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Industry leaders predict the Internet of Things market will pass the trillion-dollar mark in terms of value during the next several years, but RSA President Amit Yoran said that presents a huge security challenge as well.

’I think there’s a data challenge that exists today that’s going to be exacerbated with the explosion of data that the Internet of Things starts driving,’ Yoran said at a recent event in Boston. ’And that is nontrivial and I think we underestimate that.’

Yoran said the vast number of miniscule devices will create much more data than ever before.

’[IoT] is literally going to control everything in our lives that is not already controlled by computers,’ he said.

Beyond securing the data IoT will churn out, Yoran said another problem is the current process through which Internet of Things devices are created.

’There isn’t a whole lot of forethought into security,’ he said.

Security is not often built directly into the inexpensive, tiny sensors that ’smarten’ devices, and unlike today’s computing environment, there isn’t enough storage to ’slap on’ a patch or security fix after a device is completed.

’There isn’t a whole lot of anything you can add as an afterthought,’ Yoran said.

So while IoT may represent the future of technology, Yoran said ’we’ve just started scratching the surface’ when it comes to discovering security challenges in the market.

PUBLISHED NOV. 30, 2015