Why security should never be an afterthought: Security is often an afterthought when it comes to IoT (Internet of Things) solutions—and that means online devices are often vulnerable to a wide array of threats. IoT devices (everything from baby monitors to television sets) are very often constantly connected to the internet and may not be looked at from a security perspective, leaving them vulnerable to a variety of attacks. This makes IoT devices an ideal target for being conscripted into a botnet army (a network of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owners’ knowledge). And that’s exactly what happened to an unnamed university, with the case described in a “sneak peak” of Verizon’s upcoming Data Breach Digest. The university’s help desk had been receiving an increasing number of complaints from students across campus about slow or inaccessible network connectivity. With a massive campus to monitor and manage, everything from light bulbs to vending machines had been connected to the network for ease of management and improved efficiencies. While these IoT systems were supposed to be isolated from the rest of the network, it became clear that they weren’t completely isolated. The article contains advice on preventing and mitigating such a problem. READ MORE