By Kurt Michel, Senior Vice President,
Marketing, Veea
Webcams,
entertainment in our cars, baby monitors. These are just a few examples of how
we rely on IoT devices every day, sometimes without even realizing it. However,
with the imminent rollout of 5G, and exponentially more IoT devices coming
online, there is a large threat looming not only to our IoT devices, but to all
of us who use them as well.
The risk of
malware and botnets affecting our IoT devices is greater than ever. In fact,
botnets present the largest danger. To the average user unaware of possible
risks, the ability to infect IoT devices that in turn act as agents to target
and infect other devices can be devastating to a home or business.
Now,
a whole new class of devices is coming into play to alleviate these potential
menaces. Known as the Smart Edge Node, or SEN, these devices not only connect
our IoT devices to the edge, they also serve as gatekeepers to minimize the
threats of malware and bots, securing our IoT resources from attack.
Exactly how
are SEN devices essential in this new landscape? First, and most importantly,
SENs are critical in protecting IoT devices from botnets and malware. Similar
to today's Wi-Fi routers, SENs protect all resources behind with NAT
capabilities, and many also offer some basic firewall features. Ports can be
shut down to protect your devices from malicious external Internet traffic.
But
the SEN goes even further. It can run containerized applications that detect
and block malware and botnet traffic being generated by IoT devices inside your
network. These attacks originating from your devices can target other devices
on your network, or propagate an attack over the Internet. The SEN's ability to
block this malicious traffic at the first network hop vastly improves security
efficiency, because it is easier to block small attacks at their sources.
Afterall, it's easier to block individual raindrops than a full-blown
thunderstorm.
Additionally,
SEN devices can operate as a peer-to-peer serverless infrastructure, scaling to
demand when crucial compute power is needed, usually one hop from the IoT
devices. This makes it easy for malware and botnet detection apps to deploy and
update automatically, usually with one click using standard container
technologies like Docker.
Now, let's
consider the connectivity to our IoT devices from public networks and core
servers. With a SEN or a meshed group of SENs deployed, we have the added
benefit of being able to employ VPN-like connectivity for all of the devices on
the SEN's LAN. The SEN can provide a VPN tunnel to other devices across
the WAN/Internet, in which all outbound traffic is encrypted, filtered and monitored
by the SEN, and all IoT devices take advantage of this by
passing traffic
through the tunnel. In addition, SENs can provide local authentication for IoT
devices. By keeping authentication on the edge, enterprises can close down
services that require authentication to travel over the Internet, creating a
security win for everyone.
SENs can also
aggregate and curate data close to where it is collected, sending
only the necessary information to the core cloud servers. This makes it
possible to filter out sensitive personal data locally, before it is sent over
the WAN, providing an additional barrier against identity theft.
Local data filtering and aggregation can be a security benefit in itself,
since it reduces or even eliminates the risk of personal data being hijacked or
compromised in transit, while at the same time lowering the risk profile for
compliance and auditing.
Since the
number of people working from home has increased dramatically this year, home
office computers, business networks, and virtual classrooms are more vulnerable
to security threats than ever before. Local data
filtering an aggregation, especially for office or school use, is an excellent
way to utilize edge devices to quickly minimize potential threats when smaller
businesses or regional school districts may not have had to seriously consider
these risks in the past. There is also the very real threat of having virtual
office meetings and classrooms hijacked, and accessed by malicious actors. SEN
mitigate this, helping to alleviate perhaps the greatest concern on users'
minds these days.
There are many
ways that a distributed edge computing architecture can help eliminate risks in
IoT computing. Distributed edge computing is quickly becoming must-have
networking technology, and a SEN-based implementation can be readily deployed
in the locations where wireless routers and access points currently reside. New
application development is brisk, with enhanced security capabilities being
primary drivers. With SEN protecting out networks, IoT infrastructure can be
scaled without worry, and they will play a crucial role as IoT device expansion
continues to meet the insatiable demands of a data-hungry world.
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About the Author

Kurt is currently the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Veea. He is a former Marketing Leader at Akamai, IneoQuest, SeaChange, and Trender Research; former Product Manager at Mindspeed Technologies; and former Engineering Developer and Manager at General Dynamics and GTE.