Whether its the consumer or industrial market, the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to expand at an exponential pace. Millions of connected IoT devices and sensors can pose a serious threat to a network if left unmanaged and unchecked. Moreover, poorly secured IoT devices can be harnessed to launch massive DDoS attacks that can bring down major networks.
Amid those market realities, MSPs must evolve beyond traditional monitoring of desktops, servers, laptops and mobile devices. To potentially fill the void, Verismic has released a new Cloud Management Suite that tracks and manages IoT devices from a centralized system. The new version automatically detects and adds smart devices to the management suite, the company claims. Without having to manually discover any rogue devices on the network, IT managers can be more proactive about updating and securing them to help prevent any security breaches.
How it works: The software sends out a “request for response” to identify devices that are live and communicating over the network. Through this discovery method, IT managers will be able to see which devices are capable of sending and receiving data over your network, which can create vulnerabilities in your network. Even devices brought in by employees that have not been approved by IT can be located and secured automatically.
Device Types: The software will automatically categorize the discovered devices into Internet Gateways, Media Servers, Remote Control, Printers, Smart Home Devices, and Wireless Devices. Once organized, entire categories of devices can be disabled from accessing the Internet to prevent an attack from spreading if a vulnerability is discovered in a certain type of device. These categories also will give IT departments greater insight into the makeup of the business network to be more proactive about risks.
IoT Patch Management: devices can often be forgotten since they are usually more difficult to patch and keep updated, and they are generally out of sight and out of mind. Through the Cloud Management Suite, patches can be automatically downloaded from a maintained database of major software manufacture information. Unique patch detection logic allows you to scan and detect endpoints that require patching. The ability to find and deploy patches to IoT devices easily makes keeping the network secure a much easier job.
IoT Device Monitoring for MSPs?
Verismic Software's website doesn't say much about the company's executive team, funding or actual business performance. The company is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, Calif. and Basignstoke, Hampshire. Overall, the company has offices in four countries and 12 partners in nine countries, the website indicates.
Verismic has worked with more than 150 companies ranging from 100 to 35,000 endpoints delivering a variety of solutions for organizations of all sizes as well as MSPs, the company also indicates.
IoT Installed Base Forecast
The IoT market will grow from 15.4 billion devices in 2015 to 30.7 billion devices in 2020 and 75.4 billion in 2025, IHS forecasts. IoT adoption clearly won't slow down anytime soon, and businesses need to ensure these devices are not opening the network up to attacks both for the business, or to be used in attack against another business.
