Cloud-native IoT fingerprinting and profiling solution

2 mins read

Portnox, a provider of cloud-native, zero trust access and endpoint security solutions, is making available the first cloud-native IoT security solution to help mid-market and enterprise businesses address rising Internet of Things (IoT) security threats.

Available via the Portnox Cloud, Portnox’s IoT fingerprinting and profiling capabilities enable organisations to identify, authenticate, authorise, and segment IoT devices across their network to ensure what the company calls an effective zero trust security posture.

“No organisation is immune to the inherent and increasing number of security risks IoT devices pose as they are more susceptible to vulnerabilities and, therefore, prime targets for cyberattacks. Companies of all sizes must properly secure these devices to prevent them from serving as a gateway onto the corporate network by cybercriminals. But as networks become more complex and distributed, and as the number of IoT devices continues to grow, it's becoming more and more difficult to identify and control access for these devices across a given network, let alone secure them,” said Denny LeCompte, CEO, Portnox.  “As we bring our vision of simplifying access control and endpoint security for mid-market IT teams to fruition, adding a solution for IoT fingerprinting  to our cloud-native platform was the natural next step. Portnox now gives customers full visibility of IoT devices in use across their respective networks.”

According to Juniper Research the total number of IoT connections will surge to 83 billion by 2024, while Ponemon Institute found that most (94 percent) organisations think that a security incident related to unsecured IoT devices or applications could be “catastrophic”.

Large enterprises are not alone when it comes to rising IoT security headaches – organisations of all sizes are actively trying to strengthen their security postures to account for the surge of threats tied to the rising operational dependence on IoT.

With so many IoT devices – printers, cameras, thermostats, sensors, monitors, etc. – now in use across all types of organisations, the ability to automatically onboard and enforce IoT device authentication, control and security policies across the network is mission critical.

Portnox solutions are purpose-built to be easy-to-use, scale, and manage. With the addition of IoT fingerprinting and profiling to the Portnox Cloud, Portnox customers can now enhance the security posture of their network with respect to IoT – without the cost and resource demands associated with traditional on-premise IoT security solutions that can often be complex to configure, deploy, and maintain.

With the latest solution expansion, the Portnox Cloud now provides organizations with:

  • Complete device visibility and access policy enforcement across the network for all major device groups – IoT, bring your own device (BYOD) and managed devices
  • Enhanced IoT fingerprinting and profiling accuracy powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning
  • Strengthened organisational zero trust security postures, accounting for all devices and access layers – on-site and remote

This technology will unlock a tremendous number of additional capabilities, such as automatic policy mapping based on fingerprints and leveraging fingerprinting data to thwart potential MAC Address spoofing risks.

Portnox customers can also use fingerprinting information to provide EoL/EoS dates, as well as list potential security vulnerabilities on the endpoint to augment network access and remediation policies.