It may be years before consistent standards emerge for the IoT, but there are plenty of choices in the meantime.

Trying to make sense of Internet of Things standards today is like opening a can of worms. Definitions are still shaking out, consortia are popping up quickly, and everyone is in a mad scramble to capture their piece of the much lauded potential of an intimately connected world of devices.

With so many points to consider, security is a good place to start.

It is obvious from the proliferation of news articles about the latest in hacking successes, it’s not enough just to secure the perimeter of a network and think the devices inside of that are going to be secure.

“To anyone who’s been in the industry and really paying attention it’s clear that having perimeter security, while a critical piece of the security solution, isn’t sufficient,” said Alan Grau, president of Icon Labs. “There have been all kinds of reports in the news where people are able to breach security perimeters. The IoT at some level is no different. You can’t just say a perimeter is going to solve the problem. In another way, it’s an even bigger concern because many IoT devices are going to live out in the world and not necessarily behind a protective perimeter, so they’re going to be easier to attack. There will be people who get physically close to devices to attack them.”

The big change is that many of the attacks that occurred in the past involved breaching secure server rooms from remote locations.

“In an IoT network, they’re probably low-cost devices that you can have physical proximity to, maybe even have physical access to them, so there will be a wider range of attacks you need to protect them from,” Grau said. “They’re also low cost, so you might be able to go out and steal one if they’re out in the world someplace, or buy one, then start seeing what vulnerabilities you can find. As you look at security inside the perimeter, you really need security throughout the network.”...for more Info