How to Increase the Security of  IoT Devices

The Internet of Things is one of the most promising technologies that have great potential for transforming business processes and changing the way many companies are working these days. While in 2019, there were 8.6 billion connected devices, it is expected that by 2030, there will be more than 29 billion such devices worldwide. More and more businesses from various industries invest in the development of IoT-powered solutions annually which is explained by the wide range of new opportunities that become available to them thanks to the introduction of such products.

Though the adoption of IoT solutions is going on, there are still some issues that require attention from the side of developers and companies that implement such systems. And one of these issues is the security of IoT devices. Despite the fact that software development companies that build such solutions try to introduce strong protective measures, IoT systems are still rather easy prey for hackers and other dishonest market players. And it is important to mention that fraudsters are continuously looking for more and more sophisticated ways to get access to sensitive data that is accumulated and processed by IoT apps.

When you are planning to launch an IoT solution for the needs of your businesses, you should think about the measures that will help you to protect your devices and ensure the highest level of data security that is possible. One of the most important things that you need to do if you want to create your own product is to find a reliable company such as IoT firm Cogniteq that will be responsible for the development of your software in full accordance with your requirements and international security standards. 

But even if you are sure that you have established cooperation with the best software development team that can guarantee you the highest quality of their software products, there are still some points that you should bear in mind if you want to protect your IoT devices from hacker attacks and data loss.

Choose a strong password

Setting a complex password is probably one of the most obvious measures. It is recommended to create a password that will include not only numbers but also characters and letters. Moreover, it is necessary to regularly update passwords at least every 1-3 months. One of the best ways to make sure that your passwords for all the devices included in the system are strong enough is to use a password manager. This solution will create random passwords for all the devices and, as a result, you can avoid the similarity of passwords within the system.

Use multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) will protect your devices in those cases when something goes wrong with your passwords and hackers manage to cope with the protection introduced by them. MFA may include a different number of steps with various levels of complexity. For example, it can be a unique code that will be sent to users’ mobile devices. But you can also introduce higher protection with physical authentication measures. In this case, it can be either biometrics verification or the use of a USB stick or any other physical key. 

Do not forget about the necessity to update your software and firmware

Though this tip may seem to be an absolutely simple one, its role shouldn’t be underestimated. The same is true about the firmware. While a lot of people think that updates typically include only adding new features or introducing changes to the content, it is not so. It is also crucial to regularly fix bugs and eliminate any security vulnerabilities. We also highly recommend you run security checks at least once a month in order to make sure that you haven’t missed any issues that can result in serious problems in the future.

Switch off the auto-connection feature

When you buy a ready-made IoT device that you are planning to use with your custom software, you should pay attention to the fact that very often such gadgets are set to automatically get connected to any open Wi-Fi network. This is done by manufacturers to facilitate all the tasks related to installation and arrangement. Nevertheless, despite some advantages that this feature can bring, it can also be associated with serious security risks. 

Introduce data encryption

To protect your IoT system, you can also encrypt your connection. For doing that, you can use a VPN. It will not only change the IP address of your IoT device but also encrypt all types of data that will leave your network.

Conclusion

Though we’ve mentioned some of the most popular and efficient ways of increasing the security of your IoT devices, it is far from a full list of measures that you can introduce. One of the best ways to make sure that your IoT system is sufficiently protected is to cooperate with IoT experts who can not only test your products but also offer the most appropriate solutions for eliminating existing and potential vulnerabilities.