The world's largest trade association dedicated to the global IoT sector – the IoT M2M Council (IMC) – is announcing that it will hold a series of open forums in the next month to discuss security for infrastructure that connects remote devices. The objective of the forums will be to develop practical guidelines for deploying IoT technology that spans both consumer and industrial markets and addresses all the basic facets of an IoT deployment, including devices, networks, and cloud/application software. The forums are open to the public, and more information on their schedule and registration is available on the IMC website.
"The consensus of our group is that IoT security is more holistic and there's a need for more practical information than is generally available," says IMC Chairman Sri Ramachandran, CTO at Somos, "There's been a lot of good work done in the area of technical standards, for example, and we'll certainly refer to related works. We've identified gaps in the approaches taken by regulators and others to examining all the layers of the IoT stack, or to share critical learnings between large IoT vertical markets. We're planning to bridge those gaps and establish best practices that can sit atop the current fragmentation and provide direction to users, technology providers, and regulators alike."
The IMC is comprised of 28,000 qualified IoT users around the world, and getting buy-in from this group will be paramount to implementing a practical approach to IoT security and privacy. The group's Board of Governors includes representatives from over 30 IoT technology providers that will oversee the project. New IMC Vice Chaiman Ellen Boehm, SVP of Global IoT Strategy & Operations for internet security firm Keyfactor, has been tapped to lead the effort. Working Groups for Networks, Devices, and Cloud/App will be headed respectively by Syed "Z" Hosain (Founder at Aeris), Harald Remmert (CTO for Cellular Solutions at Digi International), and Fred Yentz (CEO at Tartabit).
"There are still a lot of questions about where this project will lead us," says Boehm, "So we're looking at these open forums as a starting point to collect feedback from the collective group of experts within the space. Once we've hosted the discussions, our Board will regroup to set a more definitive direction and outcomes that will benefit organizations around best practices for implementing security across the entire IoT stack."
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