10 Cyber Security Stars Working to Secure IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is going to open the world up to many possibilities. Opening up, however, also invites harm.

It’s no secret that security is a main point of concern around IoT. A lack of standards, uncertainty within the industry about best practices, and consumer ignorance to what security features products should have are very real concerns.

We’ve reached a point of dueling ideologies – IoT advocates that tell us how much easier it will make our lives and IoT security experts that warn of how detrimental IoT can become if not properly secured.

The certainty is that IoT will open up many new portals to the network. The logic that follows is that more entry points equates to more possibilities for intruders. No one denies that IoT can change everything, but at what cost?

Some are trying to minimize the possible cost already. A joint venture of HP and Wired has produced the story of ten individuals that are working to ensure that IoT doesn’t become a playground for hackers.

• Mischa Dohler, Professor in Wireless Communications, King’s College London – Dohler predicted that vulnerabilities of unchecked IoT devices would result in a rise in DDoS attacks, like the one on domain name system service provider DYN.
• Ovidiu Vermesan, Co-ordinator, IoT European Research Cluster (IERC) – Vermesan’s role is to facilitate research on IoT deployment in development, such as uses for National Grid, city lighting, self-regulating buildings and more.
• Samu Konttinen, Executive Vice President, Consumer Security, F-Secure – With F-Secure, Konttinen is bringing security to the router. F-Secure scans the network on behalf of all connected devices and runs another level of security checks from the cloud, allowing clients to query connections before accepting them.
• Carlos Moreira, Founder and CEO, WISeKey – WISeKey’s Root of Trust incorporates hardware into the chip of IoT devices to provide a cryptographic signature of authenticity and integrity to an AI cloud-based security platform. This keeps the network safe from each device and potential malicious connections.
• Patricia Lewis, Research Director, International Security, Chatham House – Lewis is concerned with the cyber security of satellites. They control everything from navigation to financial services and defense. In fact, cyberattacks like jamming GPS signals have been carried out as early as 2012.
• Boris Danev, Founder and CEO, 3DB Technologies – Through 3DB Technologies, Danev has created a chip that prevents attacks wherein a hacker can use a Bluetooth amplifier to trick a car with keyless entry systems into starting.
• Neil Costigan, CEO, BehavioSec – Costigan’s company is working to create a password system in which unique behavioral interaction patterns like the way you touch your phone, move your mouse, or type can be used as a password.
• Sebastian Marcel, Senior Research Scientist, Idiap Research – Marcel’s research surrounds figuring out ways to security systems can be fooled. He leads a Biometrics group to research multiple authentication modalities, how biometric identifiers can be tricked, and how to prevent these tricks from working.
• Dudu Mimran, CTO, Telekom Innovation Laboratories, Ben Gurion University – Mimran focuses on the many potential security flaws inherent in smartphones, especially when those phones are used for both business and personal use.
• Ofer Ben-Noon, Co-founder and CEO, Argus Cyber Security – Argus’s Intrusion Prevention System uses cloud-based algorithms to monitor every signal sent to a car’s network and detect and block suspicious transmissions. This prevents the potential of remote hacking that could paralyze a car.

Find out more about these individuals at Wired.

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