The Trusted Computing Group has just released an infographic on how security on the Internet of Things (IoT) can destroy the designs engineers spend so much time creating, from cars and nuclear facilities to energy grids.
Due to an overabundance of IoT protocols, a lack of standards and a growing number of connections to devices not designed for security, the ever-connecting world can become a dangerous place, as shown in the mildly terrifying infographic.
To combat this, the infographic suggests that engineers should start using a trusted platform module (TPM), a trusted network connect (TNC) and OpenSSL authentication. TPM is an international standard for cryptoprocessors, which are microprocessors that secure IoT devices by adding cryptographic keys. TNC is a network architecture for multi-vendor endpoint policy enforcement, and finally OpenSSL is a software library engineers can use to help secure their devices.
Generally speaking, the Trusted Computing Group is urging a move away from unsafe software-based security protocols and are encouraging designers and engineers to move toward a safer hardware and software based security regime, such as the one offered by TPM, TNC, and OpenSSL.
The Trusted Computing Group is a consortium that includes AMD, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Fujitsu and Microsoft.