Regulations could help IoT device security, privacy: experts

GATINEAU, Que. — The advent of 5G networks and the accompanying rise in Internet of Things (IoT) devices will bring different and heightened security and privacy risks, experts told a conference focusing on the next generation of wireless networks. “I’m really scared of the security of IoT devices,” Alex Manea, chief security officer at Blackberry Ltd., said during a panel discussion on the security of 5G networks at the Wireless World Research Forum’s 5G Huddle. Device manufacturers are essentially connecting existing household devices to the Internet, and they are not necessarily designing them with privacy or security in mind, he said. “From an industry standpoint, the IoT vendors need to do a better job of securing their devices, and from a regulatory standpoint, we need to do a better job of putting regulations in place to ensure that,” Manea added. Bill Wright, director of government affairs and senior policy counsel at Symantec Corp., added that “60 per cent of the … everyday devices that are now being put online are being built with default passwords that cannot be changed. Thirty-eight per cent of those, the password is ‘admin,’ cannot be changed.” He noted that while there’s a “huge reward for being first to market… there is nearly no reward for being most-secure to market.” Canadian companies have begun testing 5G technology. While there are still many questions around what it will look like once launched, including pricing and potential use cases, IoT is set to be a key one. Ann Cavoukian, executive director of the Privacy and Big Data Institute at Ryerson University, gave the example of a smart children’s toy that was banned in Germany because it picked up every conversation in the household and transmitted it to the “device manufacturer, who was using it for a variety of unauthorized purposes.” Wright noted that regulation in a particular country may not stop attacks originating in other countries, but that some type of regulation is still needed. “I think there does need to be some light-touch regulation because a lot of the market incentives that we’ve come to rely on aren’t working in the case of IoT devices,” he said. Manea suggested regulations specifying, for example, that manufacturers be required to ensure devices can receive security updates. A measure like that “would go a long way towards us not necessarily preventing every single attack, but at least being able to recover from it.” Katherine Thompson, senior advisor, cyber security at MNP and founder and chair the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance’s (CATA) cyber council, noted that many companies argue that any such rules would need to be global, “because if Canada steps in and regulates at a Canadian level, you’re cutting the innovation and innovation companies off at the knees.” Manea also said there are more physical dangers in a 5G and IoT environment, such as someone driving a truck into a core network node to try to take down the network. “I don’t mean to sound like Chicken Little here, but I think we do think cyber terrorism is around the corner,” he said. “So I think we need to start thinking about that and start thinking about how do we make our networks more resilient and how do we recover from those types of disasters.” And while the biggest consequences of hacking a phone might be a loss of privacy and personal data, hacking in 5G could involve, for example, stealing a car. “If somebody hacks your health care application, hacks your home, you could literally have your safety in danger,” Manea said. Wright said that in the near future, “previously unimaginable amounts of data will stream over our networks and in many ways, in my opinion, the very future of the 5G vision hinges on how secure and how private that data and those devices and those networks can be made.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca

Regulations could help IoT device security, privacy: experts

News | June 1, 2017

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Regulations could help IoT device security, privacy: experts

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