Securing IoT Data in Motion

IoT devices are constantly exchanging data with applications within an IoT ecosystem via gateways that frontend the applications. Data is transferred through secure pipelines that transmit encrypted data to and from the devices and the apps. It is critical that the data that travels along these pipelines is secured from external attacks.

Man in The Middle Attacks

Attempted hacks on data that flows through pipelines, or data in motion, are referred to as “Man In The Middle Attacks”. When successful, these intrusions act as a proxy that alters or manipulates the data before it reaches its destination.
Man In The Middle Attacks are prevented by using a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that places a combination of public and private keys on both sides of the pipeline. PKI protects the data in motion by ensuring it is authentic (confirming who sent the data) and valid (detects if any part of the message did not make it across the pipe).

3 Ways to Secure IoT Data in Motion

There are three main ways to secure IoT data that is transferred between devices and apps over pipelines.

TLS Transport Layer System

TLS secures many to many communications channels and is designed for transient secure connections. TLS links are established when data needs to be transferred between IoT devices and apps, and are torn down once the data transfer is completed.

TLS is used pervasively as it allows for an encrypted tunnel to be quickly established. It is used for both external communications and to secure communications internally within an enterprise.

The most recent version of TLS, V1.3, is more secure and flexible, faster and less complex than previous versions.

VPN’s (Virtual Private Networks) can be created using TLS to establish secure, “always on” pathways between devices and apps.

IPSec IP Security

IPSec secures many to many communication channels and is typically used within VPN’s. IPSec handles all encryption on each end of the VPN connection, negating the need for each application or device to encrypt the data it is transferring.

It is well suited to environments with larger data payloads since it is a faster method for encrypting and securing all the data being transferred over a pipeline.

SSH Secure Shell

Secure Shell is a one-to-one communication channel that is tightly coupled with Telnet and CLI (Command Line Interpreter). Data is transferred across a secure shell through a Telnet server on one end and a Telnet client on the other.

A CLI app sits between the Telnet protocol and the app or device that is sending or receiving the data over the Secure Shell pipe.

Allegro Technologies That Secure IoT Data in Motion

Allegro provides technology that plays a role in securing data transferred over pipelines to safeguard against man in the middle attacks.

ACE™ provides cryptography that underlies the securing of data across all the data transfer methods.

RomSTL™ is Allegro’s TLS V1.3 solution.

RomSShell™ provides support for Secure Shell and Telnet, and is combined with Allegro’s RomCLI™ for handling Command Line Interpreter (CLI).