IoT Considerations

This newsletter is long overdue as devices belonging to the Internet of Things (IoT) are becoming more and more commonplace in people's homes and places of work. To be sure that everyone knows what an IoT device is, consider one as pretty much any device that connects to the internet. In this newsletter, however, the attention is on any device that connects to the Internet, but is not a personal computer. These may be such devices like thermostats, fire and other alarms, doorbells, video surveillance equipment, light bulbs, garage door openers, etc. There are surely many other devices of which I'm not even aware.

Ok, so we have some idea as to what I'm talking about. The "Consideration" is not to advise which devices to purchase. What the user must take into "Consideration" is how that device connects to the internet. There have been many instances when an IoT device has been shown to have serious security issues. In fact probably all IoT devices have some security issue. None of them should be trusted.

So don't buy any? No. But the last thing you want to do is to connect any of these devices to the same network your personal computers are on. A lot of these devices are made by companies that have no clue about computer security, about the security of their devices, and have no plan or means of patching their devices. In the event any IoT device in your network were to become compromised you may as well publish all you personal, financial, medical information on social networks.

Without going into a lot of detail here are the options to protect your network. If you are going to install IoT devices in your home or place of work be sure to put them on a separate network. The easiest way to do this would be to install 2 separate wifi adapters within your house, each with a separate IP address subnet. Ok, too much information.... Another simple option that should work would be to purchase a wireless router that supports a guest network and put all the IoT devices on the guest network. My only issue with the guest network feature is that I have found some wireless devices do not truly isolate the guest network from the primary network.