In the next year, 1.5 billion will connect to the Internet and by 2020, over 20 billion devices will be online. In theory, every one of them will be able to connect to each other. The Internet was not created to handle this population explosion of data-generating devices. The Internet is threatened by its own growth. We will see cyber-attacks extend to more and more of these devices. IT security has never been more important.
Is the Internet headed for collapse? No but it could change. Here’s how:
The crumbling of the internet
Firstly, the Internet wasn’t designed to handle data being generated by 20 billion devices. Soon, it will have to. However, this alone won’t have us facing the collapse of the Internet.
Unlike general-purpose computers and smartphones, the majority of IoT devices and sensors are not sending and receiving large volumes of data. IoT devices are special purpose and normally send and receive only small bits of data to a single destination. The internet can handle the data of billions of the new sensors as long as the sensors aren’t too chatty.
But while the fabric of the network itself may be robust, hackers can exploit its flexibility.
Prepare for the worst in IT security
IoT-based attacks, like the botnet that brought down Twitter and Netflix last year, are going to get more ambitious and more damaging. There are attacks on infrastructure like power grids and traffic systems. Eventually, one of the attacks will succeed at an unimaginable scale.
Fortunately, the Internet can, and will, be safer as security is built into the network. One way is to restrict the type of traffic that network equipment will accept from an IoT device. While personal computers and smartphones get mostly unrestricted access to the Internet and the Web, there’s no reason a webcam should have the same rights.
Networking companies are working to let device manufacturers securely assert what their devices should be allowed to do on the network. The Internet doesn’t have to be wide open to hacks from billions of things that have only very specific jobs to do.
Bottom line
In fact, billions of new devices are already straining the internet. Inventions, economics, and even creative criminality are also forcing changes to the Internet. To adapt to these changing pressures, we need to weave newer and stronger communications onto the existing internet. So it can be the foundation for billions of new devices and for businesses.
Global ITN provides strong and secure IT defence mechanisms to protect you against malicious attacks such as malware, virus and data loss. IT Security takes a critical role in augmenting the surveillance of data transfer across your IT system. Therefore, using our security solutions your data is protected against malicious attacks.
What Global ITN offers:
- Penetration testing consultancy.
- The rule set changes and validation.
- Configuration changes.
- Firewall upgrades.
- Patch management.
- General maintenance.
- Backup and recovery.
- 24×7 security event monitoring.
- Performance and availability management.
- Strategic network planning.
- Fault analysis.
- On-demand report.
