IOT CYBER RISKS AND REMEDIES 1

Top IoT cyber security risks and their

prevention methods
IOT CYBER RISKS AND REMEDIES 2

Abstract

As information security sector is rapidly progressing, cyber security still proves to be a constant

challenge for companies and businesses all over the world. Companies belonging to all types of

industries invest heavily in cyber security to make sure its data and information is safe from inside

and outside threats. As cybercrimes are evolving with the passage of time the techniques and methods

used to safeguard from these cyber threats are also being improved and implemented by companies

and businesses. Making improvements in cyber security is a never ending process, no business or

organization can effectively prepare for all types of cyber threats. Because cybercriminals also evolve

as time passes and there are new methods and tools being used by hackers every so often and to

prepare for future cyber security threats it would be a best practice to take feasible steps to secure the

most important element of cyber security data integrity. In this article, we will discuss some of the

most commonly rising security threats in IoT sector and will talk about why cyber security is

important for protection of internet of things (IoT) from everyone including individuals using

technological services or products and organization that provide those services or gadgets and we will

also learn how it will impact or incoming future.

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Top Cyber security IoT security threats

Cyber security is the number one concern for every organization, business and corporation

globally and companies all over the world spend a significant amount of their revenue in re-

enforcing their cyber security sections to be prepared at all times for providing cyber security

defense and offense. Below are the top security related IoT risks along with the steps that we can

follow to safeguard ourselves from outside cyber threats.

Vulnerable IoT devices

According to Statista report, currently there are over 23 billion IoT devices used by people all

around the world. The Statista report also revealed that by the next year that is 2020 this number

is going to increase and is expected to reach 30 Billion. The number one rising issue in terms of

IoT devices is that a high number of devices are not reinforced with proper security updates to

patch any existing security loop holes and vulnerabilities. Not installing important softwares and

security updates in IoT devices and not releasing security updates by manufacturers is a high

security risk that exposes millions of users to cyber-attacks.

Prevention: This should be our top priority to regularly check our device’s updates and install up-

to-date software’s and operating systems to ensure maximum protection.

Compromised IoT devices

Cyber criminals and hackers are highly skilled they can penetrate into IoT devices if they found

even a smallest security loop hole and when a device is compromised without having the owner

know about that his/her device is under compromise by hackers. Hackers than can silently use a

victim’s device to send out malicious emails and perform spam related activities.
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Prevention: The best way to prevent an attack or compromise to our devices like mobiles,

laptops and smart gadgets is to increase security of the device and we can do that by equipping

our device with latest active security monitoring programs to make sure active protection.

DDos attacks by compromised IoT devices:

Hackers can gain unauthorized access to IoT Devices like Mobile Phones, laptops and computers

than after getting control of these devices hackers and cyber-crime groups can use our IoT

devices for initiating a bigger cyber-attack. Hackers can turn our IoT devices into cyber weapons

that will be used by hackers in launching attacks like DDos to cause mass network corruption like

bringing down a server or a website or a company’s network.

Prevention: To add an extra layer of security to our IoT devices it is recommended that we install

trust worthy third party firewall applications that will monitor and alert the user in case of any

suspicious or cyber-attack related activity.

Weak or unsafe communication

Many IoT devices do not use the end-to-end encryption method to encrypt the data that is

transferred into a network. The data that is being sent out to a network include sensitive

information like our passwords and other credential information. When this data is not encrypted

its mean it is traveling through network in clear text form and is not converted into HASH form

that can be easily sniffed by hackers by using Man in Middle cyber-attacks.

Prevention: Make sure you use the device and applications that use end-to-end encryption

methods to secure the network and your data.

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Using common passwords

This is an essential and basic knowledge that everyone using an IoT device must know and

understand. Unfortunately there are a high amount of users that choose too much common

passwords like their birthdays, car numbers or phone numbers. Cyber criminals and hackers can use

password guessing methods like Brute force attacks and dictionary attacks to find out a password to

our social media or IoT devices accounts.

Prevention: Always secure your devices with strong combination of password that will include,

uppercase, lower case, numbers and special characters. This will make this intensively hard for

hackers to guess out your password.

Over the air Access

Over the air access or remote access are one of the most terrifying and rapidly rising forms of

cyber-attacks. Hackers are gaining more and more control over devices while also spying on all the

activities and data of the owner without having to know them. These attacks are carried out by

when a hacker installs a spyware program into victim’s device that will than allow the hacker to spy

on that victim’s data. These softwares are also called as RAT’s.

Prevention: Activate dual password or dual authentication password lock that will ask the user to

provide password for every change made in the device. Similarly use fingerprint locks for added

protection.

Ransomware attacks

The number of Ransomware attacks is increasing rapidly hackers are gaining access to more and

more devices and locking them for extortion money

Prevention: Installing ransomeware protection firewalls and softwares can prevent such attacks.
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Data leaks and theft

Devices like laptops and mobiles connected to a unsecure network can expose IP address

information of the devices that can allow hackers to pinpoint and find the devices and target

them exclusively causing data breaches and credential information leaks.

Prevention: Always make sure the network your device connected to is secure. Avoid

connecting your devices to randomly publicly opened wireless connections. That are

sometimes very well deployed by hackers for the sake of malicious activities.

Unauthorized entries into homes

The one of the feared and concerned issue that is rapidly causing heat on the cyber security

sector. This security risk is much concerned and feared as it is physical world unless a data

or network breach it is the breach of homes where our families are. Hackers have already

found ways to bypass home security systems and also hacked baby monitors to gain access

into the homes.

Prevention: There are security devices available that use built-in VPN features that allows

the device to continually change the IP address of the device hence making it impossible for

hackers to initiate an attack making your home secure.

Remote Vehicle Access

Hackers have already found many ways breaking into digital technological powered cars.

Hackers can gain access to smart vehicles by initiating remote control attacks.

Prevention: Cars manufacturers have controlled this issue by introducing biometrical

identification feature to control the vehicles.

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Bottom line:

Cyber security is a constant challenge for all the organization and businesses no matter how

small or large and which industry or niche they belong to, there is always a risk of cyber-

attack or a security risk. One of the best way to protect your devices and data is to keep

learning state of the art security methods from time to time. With proper knowledge and

skills we can protect ourselves our valuable data from any outside cyber-attack.
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References

Avast (2019). What risks do IoT security issues pose to businesses? [online] Avast.com.

Available at: https://blog.avast.com/iot-security-business-risk.

IEEE (2015). Internet of Things: Security vulnerabilities and challenges - IEEE Conference

Publication. [online] Ieee.org. Available at:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7405513.

McIntosh, R. (2018). Understanding the Internet of Things Security Vulnerabilities and

Challenges – Connected IT Blog. [online] Connected. Available at:

https://community.connection.com/understanding-the-internet-of-things-and-security-threats-

you-never-knew-existed/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].

Security Today. (2019). IoT Security: Current Threats and How to Overcome Them -- Security

Today. [online] Available at: https://securitytoday.com/articles/2019/08/07/iot-security-current-

threats-and-how-to-overcome-them.aspx.

Super User (2018). Internet of Things Security: Challenges and Best Practices. [online] Apriorit.

Available at: https://www.apriorit.com/dev-blog/513-iot-security [Accessed 1 Dec. 2019].