Bigger, growing organisations likely to be targeted by attacks

Te Whanganui a Tara - An unfortunate side-effect of a technology or a product becoming successful in today’s world are the cyberattacks that follow.

Cyberattacks are increasing globally and in New Zealand every year, IoT Alliance executive director Alison Mackie says.

“IoT is no exception and as we see greater IoT adoption, we will see all kinds of attacks on IoT products, users, software, hardware and networks.

“There have already been well publicised instances of cyberattacks on IoTs such as the one on Amazon Ring, the security bug in Peloton devices, Mirai botnet compromises and attacks in addition to many not so publicised ones. 

“Major cyberattacks undermine the trust individuals and businesses place in technology and particularly devastating attacks at early stages of a technology can be severely detrimental to its growth.

“It is important therefore that organisations in the IoT ecosystem respond to the threat of cyberattacks appropriately.

“In this significant challenge also lies the opportunity to build IoT cybersecurity solutions as well as to build more secure IoT products in the market.”

While many IoT cybersecurity issues are unique to IoT and require new solutions, a number of them are the same old issues in new packaging.

It provides organisations with robust cybersecurity solutions an opportunity to customise their solutions and expand their offerings in the IoT ecosystem.

This being in addition to the challenge and opportunity of developing and offering novel IoT cybersecurity solutions to the unique IoT cybersecurity problems.

Mackie says as well as the technical solutions, organisaitons require legal and regulatory oversight to close the loop.

“The unique opportunities that IoT provides bring with it unique attacks and exploitations of the user and user’s data that most of our laws and regulations are unprepared for.

“Governments and regulatory bodies around the world are starting to take note of this. Those ahead in the game have already come up with efforts, such as the US’s IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act and the UK’s PSTI Bill.

“Time will tell how successful these efforts are in the consumer space but what is clear is that there is a need for wide ranging efforts from all stakeholders.”

This includes the users, software owners, network owners, hardware owners, regulatory bodies and governments to ensure that the IoT ecosystem is prepared to handle future cyberattacks and that the users’ IoT data as well as personal data is protected.

The issue of cyberattacks and planning to deal with them will be a key issue at the NZ IoT alliance annual meeting on October 18. CERT NZ has its cyber smart week on October 10 to 16.

For further information contact IoT Alliance executive director Alison Mackie on 027 359 3938 or NZTech’s media specialist, Make Lemonade editor-in-chief Kip Brook on 0275 030188