Security Threats In Smart Devices - Challenges, Problems, And Solutions

Challenges Faced in Smart Devices Security

Question:

Discuss about the Security Threats in Smart Devices.

Information Security has become important for every business organization and users those are using Information Technology applications.  With the advancement of IT, various issues of security and privacy are encountered such as hacking, phishing, identify theft, DDoS attacks etc. It is essential to control these security issues by using advanced security techniques. There are different applications of Information Technology and smart devices are one of them. Smart devices are electronic devices and connect with other devices and network by using different wireless protocols such as NFC, Bluetooth, 3G, and Wi-Fi etc. These wireless protocols operates at autonomous and interactive extent. Smart devices are used for both home and business purposes and examples of these devices are Home Surveillance Devices, Hazard Detection Devices, Cooking Devices, and Computer Systems. Smart Phones etc. There are some features that make these devices smart such as easy to use, trusted, reliable, secure and fast. Whether smart devices are secured, but still there are some essential security threats found in smart devices. The purpose of making this report is to discuss about Security Threats in Smart Devices. The essential points that we will discuss in this report are challenges, problems, technologies applications, relevant technologies and real life impact of security threats of smart devices.

The security threats in Smart Devices cause various challenges for users and developers of these devices. These challenges are discussed as below:

Unauthorized Access

Unauthorized access of information is performed by hackers to access data from smart devices and their networks while sending and receiving data by users. It is vulnerable security threat of smart devices and it has become an essential challenge to control. Information that is accessed in unauthorized way can be misused by hackers.

Lack of Experience

The security threats are getting more advanced and due to that it is challenging for security professionals to control these security threats. Besides this, most of the security professionals have experienced in market of network devices not in hardware and software components of devices. This lack of experience has made security and privacy of smart devices a challenging factor for developers.

Security threats in smart devices cause various essential problems for users of smart devices. These problems are related to leakage of content due to lack of security of smart devices, damage of devices due to virus attacks and risk of breach of personal and financial data of customers that is transferred over network (CUJO Smart Firewall, 2017).

It is necessary to resolve above discussed challenges and problems of security threats in smart devices. To achieve this relevant technologies are required to use at developers’ extent. The effective relevant technologies that can be used for handling above discussed challenges and problems of security threats in smart devices are, use of encryption, anti-virus, firewall and security patches. Encryption is a type of cryptography and it is used to encrypt sensitive information that is transferred by users and developers from one device to another. It is an effective way to secure data of smart devices from hacking and phishing attacks. Another relevant technology to control security threats of smart devices is use of anti-virus. Anti-virus software has capability to detect and remove virus from these devices. Different virus attacks such as malware, DDoS attacks etc. are implemented by hackers, but if virus has installed into these devices then any virus attack can be controlled easily. Next relevant technology for resolving security threats of smart devices is firewall. It is an in-built software solution into operating system and it gives alert to user about unknown entity that has entered into system and at action of user, it can also block that vulnerable entity. In this way, by using these relevant technologies, security threats of smart devices can be managed (United States, 2017).

Problems Created by Security Threats in Smart Devices

These above discussed technologies have wide range of applications. Every individual and organization those are using smart devices or any other application of Information Technology, they can use above discussed technologies for security purposes (Fortune.com, 2017).

The security threats of smart devices are commonly encountered by IT users and they know about impacts of these security threats. But still there are some vague areas of security threats in smart devices and it is related to specific reasons of occurrence of security threats in devices. By developers various advanced security techniques are used, then why these security issues occur.

Question 1: What is the effective way to resolve issue of security in smart devices?

Answer: The most effective way to resolve issue of security threats in smart devices is to maintain security and privacy of database and network of these devices effectively by using advanced security techniques (Techopedia.com, 2017).

Question 2: What is the reason of lack of Security in Devices?

Answer: The major area of lacking of security in smart devices is area of development. The use of weak algorithms and less secure programming languages and tools lead to high level security threats in devices (Veracode, 2017).

This segment of report is concerned with summarization of issue that has given in forum or blog that has used for making this report (Schaefer, 2017).

The main issues or security threats of smart devices that are addressed in this forum of report are Network Spoofing, Phishing Attacks and Unsecured Wi-Fi.

Network Spoofing is a big security issue for smart devices and this technique of data theft is used by hackers to implement unauthorized data access from different networks. Under this technique, hackers set up fake access points and these points are similar to Wi-Fi Networks. It is a way to trap users by hackers (The State of Security, 2017).

Phishing attack is also one of vulnerable security issues of smart devices. In phishing attacks, sensitive information of users is obtained by hackers and this information can be username, passwords, and other personal and financial information of users. It is very popular attack among cyber criminals (Fortune.com, 2017). To implement this attack, hackers use malicious software and fake emails with virus attachments. When user opens these emails then virus enters into their systems and access data from database.

Next issue or security threat of smart devices is use of unsecured Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is unsecured when no password is used to protect its access. In case of open Wi-Fi, anyone can access it without permission and hackers can misuse it to access user connected devices with this Wi-Fi (Searchsecurity.techtarget.com, 2017).

As we have discussed some main issues or security threats of smart devices in above segment that must be seriously considered by developers and users of smart devices to get prevention. But there is an essential issue that is not addressed in this forum i.e. Broken Cryptography. Hackers are now using advanced tools to broke security of cryptography and access data from databases.

Relevant Technologies to Handle Smart Devices Security Threats

There is no doubt that above discussed security threats or issues of smart devices put bad impact on real life of its users. The major security threats that put influence over customers of smart devices are malware attacks, spyware and hacked cryptography (The Windows Club, 2017).

Impact of Malware Attack

Malware is most vulnerable attack implemented by hackers on databases and networks of users. It is a just small script of program sends by hackers on your system and after its implementation it can damage your system and database. It is bit difficult to control malware attack that is why security experts are hired to control malware attack (Security Intelligence, 2017).

Impact of Spyware Attack

Another impact of security threats of smart devices on rela life of its users is spyware. Spyware can be installed into systems for its tracking to get information regarding its whereabouts and patterns etc. (InfoSec Resources, 2017)

Impact of Hacked Cryptography

Cryptography technique of information security is hacked when less secured algorithms are used by app developers. Due to this weakness, hackers can easily hacked encrypted format of information and can use data for their purposes.

These are some main issues or security threats of smart devices that put its bad influence on personal and business information of customers and they feel insecure to send data through these devices. Therefore, it is responsibility of developers of smart devices to be careful about these threats and must use security tools and techniques that can provide help to get rid of this problem (The Windows Club, 2017).

The important lesson that we have learnt from this whole discussion about security threats of smart devices is that security issues are getting more vulnerable and hackers are inventing new ways to hack our devices and systems. Therefore, for security professionals or developers, it is necessary to be aware about these issues of security and must use advanced security techniques and tools and strong programming algorithms to get prevention. Users purchase smart devices with surety of security and privacy of their sensitive information. But if this will not be provided to them by development companies of smart devices then their trust will be broken. That is why both at users’ and developers’ level security maintenance is required.

Conclusion

After this whole discussion we can say that smart devices can only be beneficial for users if these will maintain security of information stored into it. Therefore, it is responsibility of developers to use better security paradigms and also provide knowledge to users about security maintenance at their level. These will be better ways to handle security threats in smart devices and in other IT applications.

References

Security Intelligence. (2017). Smart Devices: Think Like a Hacker to Uncover Vulnerabilities. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://securityintelligence.com/smart-devices-hacker-vulnerabilities/

CUJO Smart Firewall. (2017). 4 Security Challenges Facing the Internet of Things - CUJO. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from https://www.getcujo.com/internet-of-things-security-device-cujo/challenges/

Kaspersky Lab United States. (2017). Kaspersky Personal & Family Security Software. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://usa.kaspersky.com/internet-security-center/threats/mobile-device-security-threats#.WON5s2clHIU

Inc.com. (2017). 7 Crazy 'Smart' Devices You Didn't Know You Needed. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://www.inc.com/edward-cox/7-crazy-smart-devices-you-didnt-know-you-needed.html

Fortune.com. (2017). The 7 most useful smart home devices. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://fortune.com/2014/10/04/the-7-most-useful-smart-home-devices/

Techopedia.com. (2017). What is a Smart Device? - Definition from Techopedia. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://www.techopedia.com/definition/31463/smart-device

Searchsecurity.techtarget.com.(2017). Phishing. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/phishing

The State of Security. (2017). 6 Common Phishing Attacks and How to Protect Against Them. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-awareness/6-common-phishing-attacks-and-how-to-protect-against-them/

The Windows Club. (2017). Security threats in Smart Devices and Privacy Issues. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://www.thewindowsclub.com/security-threats-smart-devices-privay-issues

The Windows Club. (2017). Security threats in Smart Devices and Privacy Issues. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://www.thewindowsclub.com/security-threats-smart-devices-privay-issues

Veracode. (2017). Smart Devices Pose Many Challenges to IoT Security — Is Your Company Up to the Challenge? Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://www.veracode.com/blog/2015/06/smart-devices-pose-many-challenges-iot-security-your-company-challenge-sw

Schaefer, J. (2017). Smart Devices - What Makes Them “Smart”? | IoT For All. IoT For All. Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://iot-for-all.com/smart-devices-what-makes-them-smart/

InfoSec Resources. (2017). Security Challenges in the Internet of Things (IoT). Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/security-challenges-in-the-internet-of-things-iot/#gref

Fortune.com. (2017). The 7 most useful smart home devices. (2017). Retrieved 11 May 2017, from https://fortune.com/2014/10/04/the-7-most-useful-smart-home-devices