IBM Watson IoT interviews Mark Hopkins on how to secure IoT

“How can we address security in the #IoT?” New #quickbytes with #WatsonIoT Futurist @rizzn #blockchain #ibminterconnect pic.twitter.com/UQ1L72gsFg

— IBM Watson IoT (@IBMIoT) March 22, 2017

Mark Hopkins, the founder of Roger Wilco Agency, attended IBM’s InterConnect conference in Las Vegas from March 19th to 23rd. During his visit, IBM Waston IoT held a brief Twitter interview with him about how to address security in the Internet of Things (IoT). Mark briefly explained using Blockchain hash files to secure devices accessing the internet.

Without a doubt, the world is more connected than ever, thanks in large part to smartphones and tablets. Untethered from large bulky computers, people can access information from anywhere as long as they have a solid connection to the internet. This is called the Internet of Things, which has garnered much attention, partially due to its lack of security. In October of 2016, DynDSN, a company that creates a bridge between smart devices and the internet, servers came under attack which took down large portions of the internet in one of the biggest distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) ever. (See NPR’s talk on the attack here). Smart devices are known to have weak security, and this was taken advantage of by hackers who tapped into several devices to launch a DDoS attack on DynDSN. Now the world is looking for a way to prevent such attacks from happening in the future, and Blockchain might just be the answer.

In his article “2 ways Blockchain technology could have prevented last week’s massive IoT-launched DynDNS attack” on Rizzn.com, Hopkins gives an overview of how to utilize Blockchain technology to authenticate a smart device. Hopkins suggests using hash files to create a static-like IP for devices. Here’s how it works:

• The connecting IoT device checks its hash file against a Bitcoin node and looks for the most recent ledger entry.
• If the hash file returns a different number or hash file, the device will know it has been tampered with.
• The user is notified of the tamper and can take action.

“I think the Blockchain poses a much more elegant solution to this particular issue,” Hopkins puts it.

Blockchain is an in-market technology, can be very affordable, and easily accessible with the use of Hyperledger from IBM or other Blockchain technology.

Ask us more about Roger Wilco’s work on Blockchain by visiting our site.