by Exosite, on August 10, 2017
To top off your IoT security strategy, in addition to proactive responses to security threats, designing for security, and securing user identities, you should be incorporating governance, risk management, and compliance. They represent the components of process control within an organization that can play an important role in IoT security.
Process should dictate the activities of workers within an organization, and workers should have governance to ensure compliance with company and regulatory processes. Processes specific to IoT security must be developed and applied within an organization according to the level of risk associated with the connected product and the process itself.
For example, issuing permissions for the control of important assets, such as critical infrastructure systems, sensitive customer information, or proprietary company data, should have higher governance and stricter oversight than issuing permissions for access to view data, which might include general analytics or non-sensitive information. This distinction is crucial because the potential impact of unauthorized access to critical assets can be far more damaging, leading to financial loss, reputational damage, or even legal consequences. Therefore, a well-defined process, which undergoes constant improvement and is regularly updated to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities, and on which users are trained adequately and consistently, gives people the best opportunity to perform tasks successfully and securely with the intended outcome. This ensures that employees are not only aware of the procedures but are also equipped to handle any security challenges that may arise, thereby safeguarding the organization's assets and maintaining operational integrity.
Organizations implementing IoT should focus on process for all security-critical functionality within the organization. The quality assurance process, the reviewing of security, and the hiring process should all be subject to constant scrutiny. The review of and improvement of processes leads to better outcomes overall. As such, process control and improvement should be a central focus.
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