Cisco: Nice things you got there. Shame if anything should happen to them If you doubted that the Internet of Things is a security problem, doubt no more, since Cisco kicked off its Cisco Live! US with John Chambers talking up the Borg's IoT security capabilities. There are announcements a-plenty, so The Register's networking desk is quite happy for Cisco's PR team to do its own talking. Instead, in …
... which is technology wise the same as putting censorship into it, we could also simply use slightly better routers. There are some manufacturers with fairly good track records which don't just reskin the firmware image they get from the chipset vendors. Those manufacturers also release firmware updates for at least 3 years. (more in case of an emergency)
... which is technology wise the same as putting censorship into it, we could also simply use slightly better routers
That is rather the point, except "better routers" in this case is assumed to be those that can enforce a given set of security policies on the devices that route through it. If traffic for these devices is going to be peer-to-peer, and the manufacturers can't be bothered to bake some basic security into their products, then a third party solution would be in order. This can be done with an appliance or server, or implemented - as Cisco is suggesting - by the routers. This would seem to have some built-in advantages in that there is no single point of failure and if the devices are going to connect to anything, they will be forced to apply a defined set of policies. Of course, Cisco devices get compromised from time to time and there are challenges in maintaining a decentralized set of control systems.
Yes, but the problem probably can be solved by good software design and good implementation. A device must be designed in a way so you can throw everything at it without risking anything dangerous.
The big problem of course is that those devices typically are made for idiots which cannot program. Therefore they tend to use centralized control over those devices which by itself is a big security problem.
Plus as you've mentioned, Cisco kinda has a really bad reputation when it comes to security. The devices are only tolerable on dedicated control networks, exposing a Cisco on the open Internet is a bad idea.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
