While many of the above standards include a security
component, this section focuses on recommendations
that deal with IoT security in general. Technical networking
standards (including security aspects) are discussed in the
section on Secure Communications and Infrastructure.
The UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
(DCMS), the EU Agency for Network and Information
Security (ENISA), the Alliance for IoT Innovation (AIOTI),
and GSMA 115 have released recommendations, guidelines
or good practices specifically for IoT security. We briefly
discuss these below.
UK Code of Practice
DCMS UK has proposed a Code of Practice116 for the
security of consumer IoT products and associated services.
The Code identifies that many severe security issues stem
from poor security design and bad practice in products sold
to consumers. The guidance is listed in order of importance
and, according to DCMS, the top three should be addressed
as a matter of priority.
1. No default passwords,
2. Implement a vulnerability disclosure policy,
3. Keep software updated,
4. Securely store credentials and security-sensitive data,
5. Communicate securely,
6. Minimise exposed attack surfaces,
7. Ensure software integrity,
8. Ensure that personal data is protected,
9. Make systems resilient to outages,
10. Monitor system telemetry data,
11. Make it easy for consumers to delete personal data,
12. Make installation and maintenance of devices easy,
13. Validate input data.
42
115 https://www.gsma.com/
116 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/
code-of-practice-for-consumer-iot-security
117 https://www.petrashub.org/
118 https://www.etsi.org/newsroom/
press-releases/1549-2019-02-etsi-releases-first-globally-applicablestandard-for-consumer-iot-security
The Code of Practice is based on IoT security recomm
endations from the PETRAS IoT Hub117. In February 2019,
the European Standards Organisation ETSI launched a
globally-applicable industry standard for IoT devices based
on the Code of Practice.118 It is expected that CEN/
CENELEC will also be involved in the further development
and dissemination of this standard (see https://www.
cencenelec.eu/standards/Sectorsold/DefenceSecurity
Privacy/Security/Pages/Cybersecurity.aspx).
ENISA Security Recommendations
The Baseline Security Recommendations for IoT from
ENISA 119 include a number of policy, organisational and
technical measures. Technical measures include the use
of a hardware-based immutable root of trust, and security
features such as specialised security chips / coprocessors
that integrate security at the transistor level providing
trusted storage of device identity, protecting keys at rest
and in use, and preventing unprivileged access to security
sensitive code. The overwhelming breadth and depth of
coverage make this inventory impressive, but at the same
time possibly challenging to implement in practice.
AIOTI Recommendations for Standards
AIOTI has done considerable work in this area, as
referenced by the activity underway within the AIOTI
Standards Working Group120 (WG03). According to AIOTI,
basic requirements for IoT devices include121:
– Testing and Certifying Security – Using existing, proven
certifications recognised as state-of-the-art based on
assessed risk level; additional introduction of a
classification system to certify devices for particular
use-case scenarios depending on the level of risk.
119 ENISA ‘Baseline Security Recommendations for IoT’, November 2017
120 https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/
internet-things-platforms-and-standardisation-workshop
121 AIOTI Workshop On Security and Privacy in the Hyper Connected World
Report 20160616
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