Symantec secures more than 1Bn Internet of Things (IoT) devices

Symantec has announced it is securing more than one billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including everything from televisions and cars to smart meters and critical infrastructure. With IoT devices expected to number 25 billion by 2020, Symantec is leading the effort to protect consumers from hacks against their always-on, Internet connected devices.

 “As IoT innovation and adoption continues to grow, so has the opportunity for new cyber security risks.  This is the next frontier. In the automotive industry, hackers can literally steer the car and ‘hit the brakes’ from their keyboards,” said Shankar Somasundaram, Senior Director of Internet of Things Security, Symantec. “Symantec is partnering with manufacturers in the automotive, industrial control, and semiconductor industries, in addition to our work in healthcare and retail markets.”

As part of its broader Unified Security Strategy, Symantec is investing in and offering the industry’s most comprehensive IoT security solutions. This approach includes authentication, device security, analytics and management to help prevent cars, medical devices, industrial control systems, and countless consumer electronics from becoming hacked, tracked and electronically hijacked as shown in recent news. Symantec’s IoT technology portfolio includes:

·         Device Security with Symantec’s Embedded Critical Systems Protection: Symantec’s newest offering protects IoT devices by locking down the software embedded in the device to protect against zero-day attacks and prevent compromise. Symantec has signed Wincor, the world’s leading providers of IT solutions and services to retail banks and the retail industry, along with other leading manufacturers in the industrial and automotive ecosystems.

·         IoT Roots of Trust and Device Certificates: Symantec is working with the world’s largest chip providers and cryptographic library partners, including Texas Instruments and wolfSSL, to embed security at the hardware level.  These partnerships combine Symantec’s leading Certificate Authority with the partner’s embeddable engines to create new “Roots of Trust,” the cornerstones for devices to safely encrypt and authenticate information.

·         Code Signing Certificates and Secure App Services: To ensure that code running on IoT devices is authorized, Symantec provides code signing certificates and a cloud based signing-as-a-service for a number of code formats relevant to IoT.

Symantec’s future plans to help enterprises address IoT security include introducing new technologies, such as an IoT portal for managing all IoT security from a single interface, and security analytics for proactively detecting anomalies that might indicate stealthy attacks on IoT networks.

To further fuel innovation in IoT security, Symantec recently announced a partnership with Frost Data Capital to incubate early-stage startups with funding, resources and expertise. Frost Data Capital underpins the incubator with seasoned entrepreneurs, proven innovation methodology and process, and deep expertise in big data analytics, IoT, industrials and healthcare. These startup companies will have the opportunity to collaborate with Symantec to solve the most complex challenges shaping tomorrow’s threat landscape.

Supporting Partners:

·         “It was important for Wincor Nixdorf to select Symantec to deliver the safest means for people carrying out financial transactions on ATMs. Symantec's core security technology combined with Wincor Nixdorf’s domain knowledge has resulted in a solution that offers best-in-class security against software attacks on ATMs,” said Karan Oberoi, global product manager – software security, Wincor Nixdorf.

·         “Providing secure, simple and seamless authentication requires embedding certificates in IoT products,” said Gil Reiter, Director, Strategic Marketing - IoT, Texas Instruments (TI). "To help customers secure cloud communications, TI currently embeds Symantec's root certificate in multiple IoT devices to digitally sign and authenticate Internet communication and firmware updates. In the future TI will offer new features capable of authenticated secure boot with digitally signed developer code to help customers increase the security of IoT devices.”

·         “The IoT market is craving a comprehensive security solution,” said Larry Stefonic, Founder and CEO of wolfSSL. “As the industry leaders for IoT trust infrastructure, wolfSSL Inc. and Symantec address market needs through their combined solution to help developers secure against the three most fundamental security challenges in the IoT: Man in the Middle (MITM) attack, secure firmware updates and encrypting data on the device.”