The Week In Review: IoT

Security
The Internet of Things was in the news this week, and not for good reasons. Unsecured IoT devices were implicated in the substantial distributed denial-of-service attack that severely affected popular websites on October 21. Well ahead of this event, ARM Holdings was planning to make IoT security its leading theme at this week’s ARM TechCon 2016 conference and exposition in Santa Clara, Calif. Attendees heard from ARM CEO Simon Segars and SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son on the opening day of the conference, which featured sessions with such titles as “Internet of Things Device Management Security.”

Webcams made by Xiongmai of China were apparently involved in the October 21 cyberattack on Dyn DNS, turned into botnets by the Mirai malware code, leading cybersecurity experts to call for standard security measures to protect IoT devices against such assaults. “There is not a viable defense against it for the foreseeable future,” said Ted Harrington, executive partner at Independent Security Evaluators, adding, “IoT adoption is rapidly increasing, while security considerations in connected devices remain largely absent.”

The well-covered DDoS attack coincided with the release of a survey by ESET, an IT security firm, and the National Cyber Security Alliance. The survey found while about 25% of Americans own an IoT device, 40% of the survey respondents said they weren’t confident in the privacy, safety, and security provided by such devices, and 88% said IoT devices and data on wireless networks are susceptible to hacking interference. Half of the respondents cited cybersecurity concerns that have given them a disincentive to buy IoT devices, and 14% said they don’t know how many connected devices are communicating with their router.

Market Research
ABI Research predicts more than 64 million IoT gateways will ship in 2021. The market research firm expects industrial, infrastructure, mobility, and transportation segments to represent most of the IoT gateway market, while home automation and security will account for 30% of the IoT gateway market’s five-year value. Details are in a new ABI report, M2M/IoT Routers and Gateways.

Deals
Honeywell and Flowserve said they will work together on Industrial Internet of Things applications. The joint effort will be part of the Honeywell INspire program for its industrial customers.

Products
Synopsys offers broad tool support for designing Internet of Things devices with ARM’s new Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 processors, which incorporate the ARMv8-M architecture. “Optimized embedded solutions designed to work in the most constrained environments are essential to unleash the full potential of the IoT,” said Nandan Nayampally, vice president of marketing and strategy, ARM’s CPU Group, adding, “The Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 processors will strengthen any edge device with ARM TrustZone processor security technology, enhanced performance and energy efficiency. Synopsys’ extensive design solution will support developers in the rapid rollout of these new technologies through a comprehensive tool suite that will enable optimized IoT SoCs for any market.”

Cadence Design Systems is also on the ARM Cortex-M23/Cortex-M33 bandwagon, offering the Cadence Rapid Adoption Kit for those new cores, implemented in secure IoT devices. ARM’s Nandan Nayampally said in a statement, “Our new ARM Cortex-M23 and Cortex-M33 processors are designed to provide a secure, energy-efficient foundation for the most constrained IoT applications. The latest Cadence RAK will support customers using these cores, enabling them to enhance their development environments to quickly differentiate themselves with ultra-low-power IoT devices.”