Over the past few decades businesses have managed to adapt formidable changes in technology to confront the growing Security threats to their networks and computing systems. With laptops and mobile phones coming in, enterprise IT teams had to make sure that there was no data breach from these mobile hardware devices. Later on with deployment of BYOD policies, employee owned devices posed a big threat to the enterprise IT infrastructure and brought to fore issues which were never imagined. However, each time enterprise IT has managed to face these security challenges by utilizing technology effectively.

There is yet another challenger waiting to intrude the IT networks and this might be the toughest to handle. With the “IoT” or Internet of Things entering the markets, you’d never know when the office refrigerator or the climate control system has bots ready to attack your secure IT environment. Your employees wearing smart watches, glasses or even smart clothing….it could be anything that is connected to the net. The “Internet of Things” is basically “a network of physical objects with the ability to communicate and interact with their external environment”.

Going forward, most of our appliances will be connected to the internet and will help us gather data points which could turn out to be quite significant in the mankind’s attempt to improve efficiency and productivity. But there are many potential risks involved like privacy intrusion and data profiling. Big businesses might look at it as potential “data breach” challenge.

The “Internet of Things” might change the security landscape drastically. Previously the concept of cyber security was reduced to network nodes or devices connected to the web. But IoT has provided this power to every physical object and provided it with the authority to share data instantly with any connected entity. The challenge does seem big but it can be faced if enterprise IT leaders plan ahead placing a high priority on security.

Companies should make sure that manufacturers incorporate security features in such devices while still in the building stage.

Also, enterprise IT teams must be aware of all devices within the network connected to the Internet. Also how these interact with other systems in terms of data communication.

The Internet of Things is currently a work in progress and might take some time to make a formidable impact on the enterprise security. It leaders should remain prepared and well equipped to not only protect themselves from future security risks but also be able to utilize the benefits that IoT has on offer.

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