Security News > 2021 > May > Can Nanotech Secure IoT Devices From the Inside-Out?
We saw the debut of a new botnet, Simp, that infects IoT devices in tandem with the prolific Gafgyt botnet.
There are tens of thousands of vulnerable IoT devices to be found with a Shodan search: The researchers pointed to a search that turned up 25,959 printers connected to the internet and 284,092 webcams.
According to Feiglevitch, when Check Point asks new customers if they know how many IoT devices are connected to their network, the answer is always "No, I don't know." Organizations can have diverse types of devices, of course - industrial control systems alongside healthcare IT, for example.
Check Point has found that, on average, enterprises with 5,000 employees have about 20,000 IoT devices on their networks; hospitals with 500 beds have about 10,000 healthcare IoT devices; and a factory with 2,000 workers has about 5,000 industrial IoT devices.
The first thing an organization has to do to defend IoT devices and networks is to inventory them all, Feiglevitch instructed: every smartphone, every tablet, every hematology analyzer, every immunoassay analyzer, every router, every security camera, and on and on, in every smart office, every smart building, every industrial setting, and every medical facility.
"As you can imagine, this is a large task and the ever-changing amount of IoT devices out there complicates that further, and I believe a standard should be in place," Sowder commented.