Description

As IoT matures, the emphasis will be on implementing approaches that enable “smart” IoT devices to interact with – and learn from – other IoT endpoints and data sources to enable proactive decision making without human intervention. Given that IoT will play an important role in supporting business operations, there is a growing appreciation among the IoT ecosystem participants for stringent cybersecurity controls. IoT is currently protected using solutions primarily based on a centralized, client-server architecture. However, IoT industry participants are also increasingly evaluating newer and arguably more efficient approaches – such as blockchain-based distributed implementations that don’t have a single point of failure – for protecting automated IoT operations. While we don’t see large-scale commercial implementations of blockchain-based solutions in IoT yet, it is only a matter of time before blockchain-based mechanisms become an important tool for securing the IoT. This is particularly true for verticals such as automotive where there are sufficient computing resources available at the endpoint level to support computationally intensive interactions between the IoT endpoint and blockchain-based IoT cybersecurity platforms. IoT implementations are a sum of many moving parts where data is generated and shared by multiple devices, applications, and people. Deploying and securing the infrastructure required for collecting and transmitting commands and data from these elements is a significant challenge in IoT. The fundamental requirements of effective IoT security include: 1) establishing a secure root of trust and/or trust anchors, 2) extending trust across various domains in an automated, scalable and customer-centric manner, and 3) leveraging data in a privacy-protected manner to drive business outcomes. Creating a trust framework must start with establishing an immutable identity in IoT devices in order to prevent untrusted devices or users from communicating with other devices or components on the network. This Frost & Sullivan market insight presents an analysis of the blockchain-enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT) cybersecurity market. Specifically, it will discuss how blockchain-based solutions can be used to facilitate next-generation IoT use cases focused on cybersecurity, automation, compliance and certification management, and privacy. This insight will also present the possible options for mobile operators to include blockchain-based solutions to enhance their IoT operations. Finally, strategic profiles of three leading blockchain-based IoT cybersecurity solution providers are included in the insight.

Author: Vikrant Gandhi