Steve Rogerson previews this month’s IoT Winter Days online conference organised by the IoT M2M Council

Security has become one of the hottest topics in the IoT world, and it is hardly surprising. IoT is a technology that is designed to monitor, well, everything, whether in your own building or in some far-away place. And all of it is connected.

It is thus not really a shock that some see this as an opportunity to do nasty things; I mean, if not set up correctly, this is giving potential access to all corners of a building or enterprise. The possibilities for accessing sensitive data are immense.

Even worse, connected hospitals provide a route to personal patient information and the life-saving equipment to which they are connected. Smart cities and autonomous vehicles open the door to people causing havoc by controlling traffic lights or the vehicles themselves; there have already been examples of people hacking connected cars.

According to a Markets & Markets report, the global IoT security market is set to grow from $14.9bn in 2021 to $40.3bn by 2026, at a CAGR of 22.1% 

As the report says, regulations are forcing companies to seek better IoT security measures, such as device authentication and management, secure connections, and data loss prevention. But it is not easy.

This is why those dealing with IoT security problems could spend a useful hour later this month listening to a webinar organised by the IoT M2M Council looking at IoT security and using public key infrastructure and trusted environments.

Public key cryptography is allowing trusted IoT environments to move from limited, dedicated networks to cloud and mobile platforms. This has huge implications for IoT deployments and, with hacking and ransomware threats increasing, establishing network certification for entities, hardware and software is likely to be the cost of doing business.

Moderated by analyst Robin Duke-Woolley from Beecham Research, the session will cover the latest in technology and its significance for businesses employing connected devices. Joining Robin will be Microsoft’s Eustace Asanghanwa who looks after Azure IoT security, Nils Gerhardt who is chief technology officer at Utimaco and Alex Gregory, vice president at Keyfactor.

This is the first of four sessions spread over two days – February 23 and 24, 2022. It will be followed on the first of those days with a look at how AI and machine learning are being used more than ever to deliver actionable business intelligence through IoT devices. Speakers include Andy Castonguay from James Brehm & Associates, Gary Knee from Incognito, Adam Daniel from Losant, and William Yan from AVSystem.

The second day opens with a webinar on IoT connectivity. The number of connectivity options for IoT devices continues to grow at an astonishing rate. LoRa public networks are widening their footprint, NB-IoT and LTE-M options are offering alternatives, and the number of satellite constellations is ready to explode. All this has serious implications for IoT connectivity in terms of reduced cost and increased performance. This session assesses which connectivity technologies have the potential to be IoT game changers.

Speakers include Matt Hatton from Transforma Insights, Scott Ellis from Telit, Ajay Joseph from iBasis and Nik Kitson from Digi.

The final session targets businesses that want to benefit from connected devices to oversee supply chains, manage fleets and track assets in their day-to-day operations. Pre-packaged offerings that combine connectivity services, configured hardware and turnkey software platforms can offer better speed-to-deployment and lower risk for those just starting transformation. This session covers what’s available in turnkey bundles for enterprise IoT.

This final panel will be moderated by Jim Morrish from Transforma Insights and will include Mobeen Khan from Blues Wireless, Ganesh Sivaraman from Airgain and Sunder Somasundaram from KORE.

For more information and to register, click here.