Security in 2015: Cloud Security Enables a Secure Foundation for the Internet of Things

When we think of the internet, we typically think of a diverse network enabling users to access information and applications from personal computing devices. However, we are now seeing an explosion in the volume of machine-to-machine interactions occurring across the internet. Products from home appliances, to cars and industrial equipment are rapidly evolving into connected, smart, network-enabled systems that interact with users, with each other, and with other connected services to vastly expand their functionality. This world of internet-connected devices is often referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT).

As billions of devices become interconnected with each other via the internet, device and service vendors will need to rapidly re-think their approach to security. IoT devices connect over the public internet, so traditional approaches to network security will, by definition, be completely inadequate. Furthermore, many internet-connected devices have limited processing power – making running sophisticated security applications at the device level either impossible or prohibitively expensive in terms of performance and/or cost.

Cloud-based security networks will emerge as the de-facto approach to securing the Internet of Things. Devices will connect and interact through the secure cloud network, enabling policies to be automatically applied and ensuring that communications, devices and services are not compromised by bad actors. The sheer volume of connected devices will present interesting challenges for security vendors. Billions of devices, each engaging in thousands of interactions a day implies that there will literally be trillions of daily events to correlate, analyze and secure. This will require a new breed of security technologies, and likely new security vendors that have data science and machine learning at the core of their DNA.

A Look Ahead…

The world stands at an inflection point in the way in which enterprises use and interact with data, devices and applications. The changes that are already underway require vastly different approaches to security, and the cloud is at the center of how we will address these challenges going forward.

Ultimately the security industry will move from a stove-piped, product-based focus towards an integrated, cloud-based services approach that will enable enterprises to better manage risk and attain robust security postures.

Paul Lipman

Paul Lipman is the Chief Executive Officer of iSheriff. He brings to the role over two decades of executive and operational leadership experience at software, services and ecommerce companies. Paul was previously Chief Strategy Officer for Webroot, a leading SaaS and endpoint security provider, and spent four years as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the company's renowned Consumer business unit. Prior to Webroot, Paul was General Manager of Global Services at Keynote Systems, managing the company's global consulting, customer experience management and competitive intelligence services. He joined Keynote through the acquisition of Enviz, an early pioneer in customer experience management technology, where he served as Vice President of Business Development and Sales. Lipman also served as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Business Operations at E-Greetings Network, a leading e-commerce network. Lipman was on the senior executive team when E-Greetings went public in 1999. Earlier in his career, Lipman worked as a senior consultant for Andersen Consulting (Accenture) in Europe. Lipman holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor's Degree in Physics from Manchester University in England.