FBI Alert Number I-091015-PSA
BI Alert Number
I-091015-PSA is a public service announcement from the United States
Federal Bureau of Investigation to inform individuals and organizations about
the importance of Internet of Things (IoT) security,
including potential vulnerabilities and protective measures
that should be taken to mitigate risk associated with them.
The title of
the public service announcement is “Internet of Things poses
opportunities for cyber crime.” The essence of the IoT is the idea that almost anything can be
equipped with a unique identifier and the ability
to communicate over a network. What that means is that the number of connected
devices is increasing quickly and exponentially and the potential attack surface is increasing at least as
rapidly and significantly. What may be lagging, however, is the security
measures required to protect that expanding attack surface.
Much of the
increase in IoT communication comes from computing devices and
embedded sensor systems used in industrial machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, smart energy grids, home and building automation, vehicle to vehicle communication and wearable computing devices. Because
the idea of networking such items as home appliances and other non-computing
devices is relatively new, products that can be IoT devices (things) may not be designed with security
in mind.
The FBI lists
the following examples of IoT devices:
- Automated devices which remotely or automatically adjust lighting or HVAC
- Security systems, such as security alarms or Wi-Fi cameras, including video monitors used in nursery and daycare settings
- Medical devices, such as wireless heart monitors or insulin dispensers
- Thermostats
- Wearables, such as fitness devices
- Lighting modules which activate or deactivate lights
- Smart appliances, such as smart refrigerators and TVs
- Office equipment, such as printers
- Entertainment devices to control music or television from a mobile device
- Fuel monitoring systems
Any device in
that list can be hacked if connected to the Internet and not adequately
protected. Furthermore, hacked devices can provide an attacker with access to sensitive data on the same network. During
her keynote address at the 2015 IoT Security Conference in Boston, FBI CISO
Arlette Hart discussed how the growth rate of the Internet of Things
is outpacing security efforts and implored enterprises to take action before
disaster strikes. Hart remarked that in technology, "Cool trumps safe. The
capabilities, themselves, are almost always developed without security in mind.
We need to change that."
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