Increasing numbers of businesses, both large and small, are connecting their devices to the Iot (Internet of Things). But how concerned should companies be about hackers accessing and stealing highly confidential business information? If a business has antivirus installed - surely that’s enough? Unfortunately, while it’s important to use antivirus software, it isn't enough these days. Fortunately, there is a cyber threat solution to help your business stay more secure.
What is the Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term I’m sure you’ve heard of. In a nutshell, the Internet of Things is used to describe the growing connectivity of devices to the internet to improve efficiency, reduce costs and to improve accuracy.
While the Internet of Things has gained more notoriety and traction in recent years, it has been kicking around for quite some time. Some of the earliest Internet of Things devices include an internet-connected Coke machine, created by students at Carnegie Mellon University in the early eighties, that could keep tabs on how many bottles of the sweet, brown syrup were left in the vending machine, and could also let students know if the drinks were cold or not. Then there was the internet-connected toaster, created by John Romkey circa 1990, that could be turned on and off over the internet. The term, the ‘Internet of Things’, is considered to have been coined by British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton in 1999, while working at Auto-ID labs.
The Internet of Things has come on leaps and bounds since those days!
The number of businesses using IoT devices are biggest in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors, rather than devices in people's homes or phones. Intel estimates that Internet of things tech - around the world - will be worth a whopping $6.2 trillion by 2025!
A report by Cisco and DHL projects that 50 billion things could be connected by 2020, while Morgan Stanley predict this number could go up to 75 billion internet-connected devices. Analysts at Intel raise the bar even higher, estimating that 200 billion devices will be connected to the internet!
And the bigger the number of devices connected to the internet - the bigger the number of targets available to cybercriminals.
The Problem
One issue many businesses, as well as the within the tech world, is that commercial pressures tend to outweigh security concerns, so companies will rush to be the first to market their new connectivity features (order nappies at the press of a button! Never run out of loo roll! Always have an ice cold Coke or Budweiser waiting for you at home!), without too much regard for the consumer data that's flowing out of people's homes.
And when there's a flowing out, there's a potential to flow in. As with the baby monitors, it probably won't be too long until a software vulnerability is discovered in the fridge or smart TV or ‘Smart Hairbrush’ (Yes, it really does exist!) that allows an attacker to get inside someone's home network.
Antivirus software certainly has its place, and can help businesses keep hackers off its network. But as we’ve seen, from the Target breach in 2013 where a reported 40 million consumers had their data stolen, and more recently the Equifax hack, which stole highly sensitive data from 145 million people, including social security numbers, businesses are still vulnerable to attackers.
“Cyber-crime is predicted to cost $6 trillion annually by 2021” ~ Uncloak white paper
I.T. governance recently reported that a staggering 2.9 million British companies were victim to cyber crime which cost £29.1 billion. With cyber crime estimated to soar to $6 trillion dollars by 2021, the question is - are antivirus and intrusion prevention systems enough to help stop hackers and prevent the type of breaches similar to the ones above.
The short answer is no.
So, is there anything more business can do to help prevent hackers accessing and stealing their company data, their trade secrets and other account information?
The Solution: Uncloak Cyber Solution for your business
While installing an antivirus software serves a purpose, Uncloak incorporates additional functionality to help businesses keep their systems more secure.
Many businesses today connect to the internet in one way or another, whether it’s a web server, selling products or services, or staff laptops and smartphones being used for company email. As we’ve seen with Target and Equifax, hackers were able to bring down these companies system due, in part, to their exposure on the public internet.
“The number of objects connected to the internet could go up to 200 billion devices” ~ Intel
And while many companies focus on securing their servers and networks, it just takes one IoT connected device to bring everything crashing down. As an example and reported in The Hacker News, there was a case where cybercriminals hacked a casino via its internet connected thermometer which was in an aquarium on the casino floor. They exploited a vulnerability in the thermostat and were able to gain access to the system which contained all the information of the high-rollers, and as the Hacker News reports: “then pulled it back across the network, out the thermostat, and up to the cloud."
A vulnerability of this type wouldn’t necessarily be picked up by automated scanning, as it chains a number of exploits together to create an attack that’s bigger than the sum of its parts.
Uncloak solves this problem by adding a human element in to the mix. The Uncloak Hunter Program will utilise professional ethical hackers to review and test a company's systems, employing the same ingenuity as the cyber criminals, to discover and report potential vulnerabilities so they can be fixed before the bad guys get a chance to exploit them.
As each new device and endpoint is connected to the internet, the potential for an unpatched vulnerability increases, along with the risk of exploitation.
And this why Uncloak is so valuable in the fight against hackers, both for consumer protection and business.
Uncloak token and sale information
The Uncloak token pre-sale runs from:
May 25th 2018 - 25th June 2018. Sign up here: https://uncloak.io/register/
Uncloak ICO: Starts 26 June 2018 8:00 AM GMT and ends 3 July 2018 2:00 PM GMT
Total token supply: 4,200,000,000 UNC
Hard Cap: $21,000,000 USD
Soft Cap: $6,000,000 USD
Token Price: 1 UNC = $0.01 USD
Uncloak Token distribution
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