As we have discussed in previous articles on our blog, smart technologies are advancing at a precedential speed. New technologies and IoT devices allow operational technology infrastructures to connect to the information technology (IT) realm, receiving data and controls from Internet-connected devices. While this creates amazing opportunities and technological advancement, such as simplified process control, real-time visibility, and decreased unplanned downtime, connecting OT devices to the Internet makes them vulnerable to an additional world of threats and attack types. Companies and facilities must strictly protect their industrial control system (ICS) and SCADA networks, since a breach can cause damage to an electrical grid, an oil rig, or even to emergency services systems during a crisis.

5G is here, and it is definitely changing 21^st century technology. The fifth generation of wireless connectivity marks a new era for devices of all kinds, serving as critical infrastructure to promote the digitization, automation and connectivity of machines, robots, smart appliances, transport solutions and more. In addition to advanced infrastructure technologies - smartphones, computers and Internet-of-Things devices are extremely prevalent in every home - and they’re getting smarter. With the increased demand for connectivity and 5G-enabled IoT devices, vendors are rushing their products to be the first on the market, trying to beat out the competition on the way. According to Statista, there will be a whopping 74 Billion connected devices by 2025. Even last month’s Black Friday deals on next generation smartphones and smart devices may very well have equipped another couple million Americans with 5G-compatible devices. But despite the excitement and hype around smart technologies, this race-to-market is creating a gaping hole where strong security and advanced technology must meet. Vendors are sacrificing security testing, allowing potential vulnerabilities to remain hidden in the backend of devices.

The alarming concept of IoT cyber attacks sends us straight to a dystopic vision of crashing automatic cars, and smart elevators stuck in place with evil music playing in the background. Looming over the excitement for next generation technology is a cloud of worry about the cyber implications of connecting everyday devices to the internet. While we’re sure that a hospital whose critical scanning machines are being held captive by ransomware will pay up, we don’t tend to stop and think about our small day-to-day actions that may be affected as well. If your printer was held hostage by ransomware before a critical meeting, and you had to pay $100 to free it – would you?

In the coming days, CrowdStrike will formally end-of-life their DNS service that many customers are using. This service takes Crowdstrike intelligence and puts it into a CrowdStrike-managed DNS resolver to protect against advanced threats that they are tracking. When this service is retired, you will no longer have protection at that layer. As an important note, there are many classes of devices that endpoint protection do not work on (medical devices, IoT, etc) but by using DNS, you can still provide a strong layer of protection.

Like many technologists who are also parents, I think a great deal on how best to protect my family online. Working for a security company, I have access to more tools than the average person, so recently I’ve implanted DNS security at home. I focused more on DNS because there are no “services” offered on my home network, and I’m mostly concerned more about my kids or wife clicking on a phishing link or similar outbound malicious traffic.

An extremely sophisticated IoT botnet has recently been discovered and dubbed “Torii.” One of Torii malware’s many advanced capabilities is running on just about every type of smartphone, computer and tablet, with over 100 malware variants supporting over 15 different architectures.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 19, 2017. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

ThreatSTOP CEO and Founder Tom Byrnes recently spoke with SC Magazine about the inherent security risks of IoT devices in the healthcare industry.