Steve Rogerson reports from this month’s IMC webinar on security in the IoT.

Do not try to do security on your own. Not only is it be a major task, but the results of getting it wrong can be disastrous. Plus, if you work with your customers you can make sure the whole package is secure, because if you get it right and your customer gets it wrong, then that can become a point of vulnerability for both of you.

Now, most people know that, really, if they think about it for a second or two. But I couldn’t help being impressed by the delightful way Microsoft’s Eustace Asanghanwa, who looks after Azure IoT security, explained it. In some countries, he said, children are raised not just by their parents but by whole villages. I am not sure that exactly maps to planning IoT security, but it was still a nice image.

Asanghanwa was one of the speakers giving this key message on the importance of working together on security at a webinar this month organised by the IoT M2M Council.

The panel was moderated by analyst Robin Duke-Woolley from Beecham Research and it covered the latest in technology and its significance for businesses employing connected devices. Joining Asanghanwa and Duke-Woolley were Nils Gerhardt who is chief technology officer at Utimaco and Alex Gregory, vice president at Keyfactor.

Asanghanwa said we were living in an amazing era. In a few short years, we have seen a lot of changes, starting with unlimited computer resources in the cloud, and we are offloading some of those resources to the edge. So edge devices are not just becoming more intelligent but they have behind them a massive amount of compute power. That is game changing.

And then there are digital twins, where we can create replicas of physical environments that lets us use the past to predict the future. This is happening across just about every industry. Over the past couple of years, I have written about digital twins of shops and buildings, of town and cities, and even the start of people making digital twins of whole countries.

The problem, which was addressed by the panel, is that this wonderful computing power and the startling digital twins all come crashing down if there is not adequate security. And you need it everywhere.

As Gerhardt said, security is needed in the supply chain, in the infrastructure, in gateways, and, of course, wherever your data are stored. Take factories for example, for them to undergo successfully a digital transformation (I still don’t like that phrase), then security is a must. And it impacts massively on safety.

Asanghanwa summed this up by saying you don’t want a security issue sending a robot arm the wrong way.

And Gregory said it was not enough just to get security, but in many cases it had to be right first time, and that can be tricky, which brings us back to doing it not alone but with others. The IoT companies represented on this panel can all over help with this.

You have to be protected and so do your customers, said Asanghanwa. Security is a shared responsibility. This creates an opportunity for the whole industry to come together.

There are also not many companies that can do everything for every industry, said Gerhardt, which is why it was important to choose the right partners to make sure security covers every use case.

And that is the message really. Security is important, you should not do it on your own, but with partners who understand how everything works. And, yes, it is hard, but I am sure it is a lot easier than raising a child. You won’t need a whole village.