Symantec Adds IoT Security; Enters 1 Billion Device Market
Symantec is trying to capitalize on the Internet of Things gold rush by becoming one of the premier protection suites for zero day hacks against IoT devices. By 2020, Symantec says that the global IoT market share will include over 25 billion devices. Since IoT is still within its infancy, Symantec is making this early move so that it can be one of the more recognized names in IoT security.
When you think about all of the different types of hacks an IoT device could be susceptible to encountering, it becomes clear that security should the top priority of organizations that use IoT. Since IoT is being consumerized, protection for these IoT is more important than ever.
“As IoT innovation and adoption continues to grow, so has the opportunity for new cyber security risks. This is the next frontier. In the automotive industry, hackers can literally steer the car and ‘hit the brakes’ from their keyboards,” says Shankar Somasundaram, the Senior Director of Internet of Things Security at Symantec.
“Symantec is partnering with manufacturers in the automotive, industrial control, and semiconductor industries, in addition to our work in healthcare and retail markets,” Somasundaram adds.
Symantec will protect IoT devices with its new Embedded Critical System Protection (ECSP) suite. With the Symantec Embedded Critical System Protection, IoT device owners can setup encrypted authentication, device security, and analytics.
Symantec is also working with Texas Instruments and wolfSSL to embed security on the IoT device at the chip level. Symantec is calling this approach “Roots of trust” since it will become the cornerstone for IoT device safety. To double check that an IoT device is authorized, Symantec has created a code signing process for certificates that works with a cloud based Signing-as-a-Service for different code formats tailored for IoT. Symantec says that Wincor has signed on as an early adopter of Symantec’s IoT security suite.
