Internet of Things (IoT)

Cars, medical devices, and other products will continue to be produced with network capabilities, increasing attack surface. There is expected to be 20.4 billion IoT devices connected to the Internet by 2020. With an increasing number of devices coming online, attackers have more potential targets than ever before. Part of the problem with these IoT devices is that patches are not regularly rolled out like they are for regular computer systems. Patches for IoT devices are an afterthought, leaving devices vulnerable to attack. After purchasing an IoT device, consumers should download any new patches that exist and change the default password if they can. Patching will help remediate known vulnerabilities that exist while changing the default password to a complex password will defend against password guessing and password-cracking software. Corporations should consider segmenting their network, placing IoT devices on their own network, to prevent having a single point of failure.