The urgency for viable Internet of Things (IoT) security solutions grows by the day. At front-of-mind for many business and government leaders lies the same, nagging question: What do we need to do to secure the IoT? Our research illustrates how business must adapt to this new reality by creating an agile, resilient and vigilant security apparatus embedded into products and services, prepared to fight off cyber-attacks before it’s too late. To find out more please visit: www.accenture.com/SecurityIoT

1. Preparing for the
Internet of Things
Industrial control systems
that run everything from utilities to factories now combine formerly
walled off operational technology and IT in new IoT-based solutions,
potentially exposing fundamental infrastructure to threats that could
shut down cities or harm citizens.
Connected vehicles
stream the latest information and entertainment, but could fall victim to
hacker attempts to reprogram vehicle electronics, compromising passenger
safety or damaging automaker brands.
Unmanned aerial vehicles
(“drones”) play increasingly prominent roles in modern life, but their
wireless IoT connections are vulnerable to attack, allowing hackers to hijack
them for malicious purposes.
Connected retail
provides more insights than ever into consumer behaviors, but it also
opens up massive new amounts of customer data to attacks.
© 2015 Accenture
All rights reserved.
Accenture, its logo, and High performance. Delivered. are
trademarks of Accenture. This document makes descriptive
reference to trademarks that may be owned by others.
The use of such trademarks herein is not an assertion
of ownership of such trademarks by Accenture and is
not intended to represent or imply the existence of an
association between Accenture and the lawful owners
of such trademarks.
Source
Gartner, Forecast: The Internet of Things, Worldwide,
2013. 18 November 2013G002591
Engineer “trust” into
connected products by
applying secure by design
principles throughout a
product’s development.
Adopt a new operational
mindset that focuses on
continuously monitoring the
company’s operational and
security health.
Develop contextualized threat
models that incorporate
business goals, underlying
technical infrastructure and
potential business threats.
Apply mobile and
cyber/physical system (CPS)
security lessons, which can
provide valuable insights.
Adopt “privacy by design”
(PbD) principles, such as
co-locating access and
authorization rights with
relevant data sets.
Understand and use
emerging standards.
Continue to educate system
users on key threats such as
sophisticated phishing and
social engineering attacks.
The “Internet of Things” (IoT) links intelligent machines, sensors
and analytics online to form a productivity-enhancing
revolution. By 2020, Gartner says it will connect 26 billion
devices (excluding PCs, smartphones and tablets).1
The IoT is
already under attack, and the following four scenarios highlight
the security challenge:
Securing the IoT will require companies to adopt new ways of
thinking to defend themselves and their customers against
malicious attackers and privacy abuses. Methods include: