IoT Security Isn’t Just About the Device

So one thing people get wrong about IoT security is that most people think that locking down a device such as setting a strong password, using HTTPS or other forms of encryption is all that they need to do. And again, it's an amazing start, but an IoT product is never just the device. It is ah part of an ecosystem that includes firmware, mobile apps, cloud APIs, connected devices, wireless protocols, local interfaces, and third-party SDKs. Each of these layers creates a new attack surface and a new set of assumptions that marketers need to understand that once they are adding their IoT device to a connected environment, They need to understand that comes with certain risks and responsibilities. So what gets overlooked is how these layers interact with each other. Maybe the firmware is secure, but the cloud API is you know allows too much in. It's over permissive. Or maybe the over-the-air updates and updates process are well designed, but the signing key is stored in plain text in the firmware. You can't fix that with just a firewall or TLS. A really skilled attacker can just position themselves in the right way to pull that information. You're only as secure as your least secure component. So IoT security isn't just about patching in isolation. It's about understanding how trust flows with the whole system, the entire ecosystem that IoT device is a part of and where the trust can be broken along the way.