BlackBerry plants foot in IoT security

BlackBerry Ltd. is stepping in to fill a security gap widely complained about in an emerging space: Internet of Things devices. The smartphone pioneer, which has focused its efforts on shoring up security for a broad clientele including businesses and governments, announced Monday that it is providing IoT manufacturers with a platform to proof their devices and certify their security with the BlackBerry label. On Monday, the Waterloo, Ont.-based company said those device makers will have three “feature packs” to choose from, enabling them to do things like implement BlackBerry secure keys in the device hardware as it’s being built to verify its security and beef up the product’s operating system to ensure security and stability. The features would be carried throughout the life of the product. BlackBerry’s announcement comes at a pressing time: on the cusp of a flood of new internet-connected products ahead of the rollout of 5G networks expected to facilitate the liquidity of the device market -- Juniper expects over 46 billion of them globally by 2021 -- and on the heels of a report from the federal government warning of the security of such devices. Noting the increasing pace at which IoT devices are being adopted, the federal Canadian Centre for Cyber Security said in a threat assessment report late last month that the government is seeing malevolent actors “shifting their preferred platform” from computers to IoT devices. It added they don’t require a sophisticated state-sponsored actor in order to be exploited, but many could be at the whim of “less-sophisticated cyber threat actors.” The need for IoT standards was also echoed in a Senate banking committee report that emerged prior to the CCCS report. Before the CCCS was established in last year’s budget, the Communications Security Establishment told The Wire Report in 2017 that the agency was monitoring with interest a proposed bill in the United States that suggested IoT devices bought by federal agencies meet minimum cybersecurity standards. But the warnings came long before a unified federal voice on the matter. Early last year, a conference heard from cyber security experts who argued that the government should consider having import standards for the devices to mitigate the possible threats. Part of what drives the concern is that some of the devices -- examples include baby monitors and security cameras -- purchased off the shelf come with widely known default passwords or no such login requirement whatsoever. The country’s largest telecoms have been moving to exploit their new LTE-M networks to facilitate the seamless transition to a universe with ubiquitous IoT, which includes technology used for agriculture. Last year, at a conference focused on 5G in Gatineau, Que., BlackBerry’s chief security officer Alex Manea had a foreboding message for attendees, saying he was “really scared of the security of IoT devices.”

BlackBerry plants foot in IoT security

Brief | January 7, 2019

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BlackBerry plants foot in IoT security

Brief | January 7, 2019

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