The Internet of Things was a big theme at CES 2018 last week in Las Vegas, and that is likely going to be the case for other trade shows in 2018 and beyond. As more and more companies are moving away from smartphones and into connecting everything in our lives. AT&T was at the show in Las Vegas, although it didn’t have an actual event, some of its executives were in town. Including its president of IoT, Chris Penrose. Who stated that “we design everything we do with security in mind”, when talking about security and the Internet of Things or IoT. According to Penrose, AT&T is taking a multi0layered approach to security, this includes the device, the network and the application. To make sure its users are safe.
Penrose also noted that AT&T is “investing significantly around entire suites of security solutions to really make sure we’re doing as much as we possibly can to secure those IoT devices”. Security with connected devices have become a big topic lately, especially with many connected devices having exploits found in them, and many never getting an update. Which has some consumers a bit worried about putting a connected camera in their home. Think about it, if a security camera in your home gets hacked, it means that the hackers could have a 24/7 live stream of what’s happening in your home, and make it much easier to break in.
This is something that all of the carriers are looking at right now, not just AT&T. Carriers know that the next cash cow for them is going to be the Internet of Things, especially once 5G is up and running – since 5G is made specifically for IoT. And having security available for these devices is going to be very important for its customers. The Internet of Things is a pretty interesting area right now, and it’s only going to continue to get more interesting and bigger as time goes on. So networks will need to figure out a way to keep their customers safe from potential exploits, hacks and other things that could come with these devices.