By Sundar Balasubramanian, Managing Director, Check Point India and SAARC
Across the world, there are trillions of devices which are connected to the network, systems and other devices to provide what analysts call an intelligent system of other systems. Through the cloud, these systems and devices monitor data for analysis to transform businesses. Banks for example can have a full view of customers’ finances in real-time, simply through the customers’ use of smart devices to access data and to utlise other banking services. Banks themselves also utilize such smart devices from printers to systems to ensure they are able to connect to customers faster and more efficiently and depend on these IoT devices to deliver the data required. With its widespread use, these IoT devices are set to grow. According to Statistica, in 2019, there were approximately 250 million internet of things (IoT) connected devices in India and this number was expected to reach over two billion by 2021.
It’s no secret that leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) devices across bank facilities delivers productivity benefits. However, these same IoT devices can also possibly expose banks to new cyber threats. Huge banks can easily have more than 1 million IoT devices on its network. Many of these IoT devices can be unpatched and, in many cases, exist invisibly throughout the network. This is a cause for concern in India, where an organization is being attacked on average 1789 times per week in the last 6 months, compared to 1643 attacks per organization in APAC, according to Check Point’s Threat Intelligence report. Banks today must have the ability to protect against IoT network threats. From IP cameras and smart buildings to access devices and printers, they must protect their infrastructure against IoT network cyberattacks and identify and protect all IoT devices on the bank network.
Unfortunately, connecting IoT devices to the network naturally extend the attack surface. This is because it provides additional entry points for hackers, which may result in unauthorized access to and from IoT, lateral movement, lead to a significant data breach, as well as damage the bank’s reputation and customers’ privacy and security.
Securing a bank’s IoT devices to protect the network from attacks is a great challenge for many, requiring the ability to:
- Identify and map every IoT device connected to the network
- Apply and manage multiple and complex IoT profiles/policies
- Protect and manage the network and all IoT assets.
Solution for securing the bank IoT devices to protect the network from attacks
Fortunately, Check Point provides the perfect solution to overcome such a challenge, transforming what would be a challenging project into a much simpler and cost-efficient project. Check Point Quantum IoT Protect’s main benefits for the bank included:
Advanced Discovery and Risk Analysis engine
An ongoing automated process identifies and maps all IoT devices in the bank’s network, assesses device risk, and provides complete visibility into the bank’s IoT assets.
Seamless Profiling
Provides autonomous zero-trust segmentation access-control policies, which are deployed automatically across the bank’s IoT devices. The solution uses AI and behavioral learning-based analysis, providing a high level of policy granularity: based on destinations, applications, and commands.
