Exotic, new connections: Embedded devices

Prepare for a host of new networking problems as devices never meant to be computers become network connected, reports Deb Radcliff. 

http://www.scmagazine.com/exotic-new-connections-embedded-devices/article/236308/3/ 

Phones, vehicles, traffic lights, medical devices, buildings, even weapons – everything's getting plugged in these days. This connectivity might make sense from a management and efficiency perspective. However, these devices – often chip-enabled and communicating over multiple protocols and channels – present risk management problems that keep IT pros up at night.

 Along with encryption, access controls and authentication will need to be able to operate in an environment with multiple types of traffic. Specifically, these systems must determine what type of devices are sending traffic on the network and how to handle their entree based on what they do or do not know about those devices and users, says Mamoon Yunus, chief executive officer of Newton Mass.-based web services provider Crosscheck Networks. “We believe access and information exchange between exotic endpoints will best be controlled through a gateway that sits behind the network firewall,” he says. This will serve as a proxy for identifying the device requesting access, signing and authenticating tokens and supporting information exchange.