Amazon Web Services announces Internet of Things (IoT) security service

By Cameron Abbott and Giles Whittaker

Amazon Web Services rolled out an IoT service called IoT Device Defender to limit risks from unsecured IoT devices. The service will monitor an entire fleet of devices for compliance policies and best practices. As such, an organization can set the normal operational parameters and policies for a given fleet of devices and then Device Defender will make sure those policies are enforced.

Included in the Device Defender’s capabilities is the ability to recognise malicious IP address, and in the event that data is being sent Device Defender will block the transfer. The autonomy of Device Defender to be able to block a high risk transfer, whether learned from previous experience or governed by the organisations compliance policies, is thought to make the ongoing security management of a fleet of IoT devices significantly more efficient.

From an organisation perspective, one of its highest cybersecurity risks is the ease in which employees can unwittingly expose the organisations systems to cyberattacks as a result of utilising cloud products. With a growing public interest in data breaches and the handling of personal information, solutions such as IoT Device Defender are likely to become central to many organisations security protocols.