Internet of things (IoT) has brought many benefits to the construction industry. IoT embedded within intelligent machines can monitor construction equipment location, operational status, and predictive maintenance, which can save both time and money. Green buildings, intelligent prefab, building information modeling, and more are other driving forces for IoT devices.
Cyber Hazards for the Construction Industry
Challenging the rapid growth of the IoT in construction is the realization that the cyber landscape poses new hazards for operators that move aggressively to use new IoT technology.
Cyberthreats can ransom operators by shutting down day-to-day construction activities. Attackers may seek to penetrate construction financial systems to steal funds and will try to use the IoT devices to support these attacks.
Traditional strategies to protect construction industry information technology networks have been evolving quickly to meet these new threats. It is no longer sufficient to expect that your firewall and endpoint detection and response (EDR) software will be enough. Attackers without question will get into your network and will create disruption. How can you stop them?
Best Practices to Protect Your Network
The solution lies in new best practices for construction industry networks, which leverage the concept of Zero Trust. Zero Trust was developed by a leading industry analyst, Forrester Research, to devise a way to take existing networks and make them much more resilient in the face of a barrage of ongoing sophisticated cyberattacks.
Cyberattackers count on being able to move through the network and discover vulnerable resources, such as IoT devices, to support and aid their activity. Zero Trust networks shut down the attacker’s ability to see anything inside the network. If you cannot see it, you cannot find it, and therefore you cannot exploit it.
Zero Trust is simply implemented by adding an appliance next to your router. This appliance implements Zero Trust by using moving target defense (MTD) and micro-segmentation technologies. These appliances place a protective shield around your IoT devices and other important resources within your construction network and shut down attacker visibility.
The IoT is bringing important benefits to the construction industry. The pace of new IoT technology deployment will only continue to accelerate. By implementing a Zero Trust network, you can minimize potential access and damage by attackers and safely gain the benefits that these new IoT capabilities bring to the construction industry.
By Mike Simon, president and CEO, Cryptonite
