Security in IoT devices, like any new technology, is a big challenge. Security in IoT devices potentially can include anything from the IP-connected television to intelligent sensors used on the production floor to industrial control systems at a utility or biomedical devices used by a healthcare provider.
The television could be an entry point to your internal network; the shop floor’s sensors and other equipment could contain information of value to a competitor; the industrial control system could have a cyber warfare implication (such as an attack on critical infrastructure); and the clinical devices could have patient health and safety impact. Ensuring that those devices are fielded according to a secure configuration is important — and it’s equally important that they stay that way over time.
Obviously, device manufacturers can and should ultimately play a critical role in this but many don’t do enough because it is not easy. There are a few things that organizations can do to help develop and enforce a hardened configuration for the IoT devices they field.
[quote font=”tahoma” font_size=”13″ font_style=”italic” color=”#262626″ bgcolor=”#f2f2f2″]
“The goal moving forward is to help establish and create roots of trust and demonstrate the strengths and reliability of encryption during the IoT device management process”
Adam Cason
Director of Product Marketing
Futurex
[/quote]
What are the IOT market opportunity and challenges in India?
India is a burgeoning market for the adoption of IoT. Many companies are aggressively pursuing security enhancements for their devices that directly communicate with users, centralized management infrastructure, or other devices. The goal moving forward is to help establish and create roots of trust and demonstrate the strengths and reliability of encryption during the IoT device management process.
Given the fact that biggest challenge is the data security, what is the perception and preparedness of the users?
Users expect that security is built into their systems, and so we are seeing a bigger demand for cryptographic solutions with these functionalities from a core manufacturing perspective. Futurex is in a unique position to be able to provide these services to our customers and partners.
Who are the early adopters of IOT solutions and why?
We’ve seen a lot of early adoption from the financial industry. For example, point of sale and MPOS device manufacturers have largely recognized the benefits that IoT security offers them, as well as the advantages in manageability for their ecosystem. We have also seen a great deal of interest in the automotive industry and among computer component manufacturers.
How Futurex does address the security piece?
Futurex’s enterprise security solutions help in protecting the IoT from the initial point of manufacture until their deployment in the field. In particular, our key and certificate management solutions help in establishing root of trust and encrypting data and communications, including cryptographic key management.
What is the competitive advantage of Futurex because there are many such solution providers who have key management, authentication and encryption, etc.
One major advantage of the Futurex platform is that it provides turnkey solutions for key, certificate, and identity management that requires no reliance on third party entities. Additionally, Futurex devices are PCI HSM and FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated, as well as standards-compliant.
Which product /solutions of Futurex is selling in India?
Futurex focuses on providing general purpose and payment-focused hardware security modules (HSMs) with unique capabilities such as managing and monitoring remotely to enhance security and compliance. As well, our key management solutions include remote key loading and certificate management functionality.
What is the focus of Futurex customers or channel partners?
Futurex follows clear processes for on boarding our partners by fully enabling and supporting them with technical and sales training. We also assist partners with co-branding and joint marketing. With this program, we’ve been able to create a wide range of successful partnerships.
What is the route to market by Futurex in India?
Futurex has a number of partners, value-added resellers, and application integration partners across India who provide valuable market insight and distribution channels.
What are the market challenges of Futurex?
One of our biggest challenges moving forward would be that, while customers are concerned about IoT data security, they don’t understand many of the aspects of encryption and key management. Stressing that importance, making sure that information is accessible and easy for them to understand will be what we need to address moving forward. For this reason, we have designed our solutions to be as easy to use as possible.
