Global Cyber Alliance Launches Cybersecurity Development Platform for IoT

The Global Cyber Alliance, a London-based cross-sector organization dedicated to cybersecurity, has launched its new Automated IoT Defense Ecosystem (AIDE), its new security development platform to support the Internet of Things and related products. AIDE is intended to help small businesses, manufacturers, service providers and individuals to identify vulnerabilities, mitigate risks and secure IoT devices against the growing volume of threats.

AIDE aggregates attack data into an analysis platform that is available to companies, academia, nonprofits and other entities to study IoT attack signatures and patterns. The analysis platform will be used to generate data feeds available to GCA partners and the security community. These feeds will be made widely available throughout the cybersecurity ecosystem to enable IoT attack mitigation.

The real-time threat feeds generated by the platform can limit and mitigate identified attacks while preventing any further compromise of IoT devices. AIDE allows an edge router/policy enforcement point to use threat feeds to mitigate attacks against the local environment and also relies upon an application of the capabilities of the “Manufacturer Usage Description” standard, through which manufacturers can specify the types of activities and communications that are allowed on their devices.

As part of its first effort to leverage the AIDE and ProxyPot technologies, GCA is also working with Attivo Networks to build a SCADA honeyfarm to collect threat intelligence on attacks targeting industrial control systems. This custom-designed IoT honeypot developed by GCA is capable of replicating one IoT device across multiple IP addresses and physical locations to identify global attack risks quickly, efficiently and accurately. Together, the AIDE and ProxyPot platforms allow for organizations to have greater visibility into the types and scale of threats facing the IoT devices deployed into various environments, including smart cities and other smart ecosystems.

“The number of internet-connected devices has grown exponentially over the last decade and with it the cyber risk to companies, organizations and individuals deploying these devices on their network,” said Philip Reitinger, President and CEO of GCA. “The launch of the AIDE platform furthers GCA’s mission of providing scalable, implementable solutions to organizations of all sizes and budgets to secure their devices and reduce risk.”

 “IoT devices are notoriously difficult to secure and apply typical prevention measures,” said Marc Feghali, Co-founder and Vice President of Product Management at Attivo Networks. “By creating customized decoys that blend in with production connected devices, organizations can quickly detect attackers, engage them, capture their attack methods, derive their attack signature and divert them away from real IoT infrastructure, mitigating the risk of attacks on Operational Technology infrastructure.”

Channel Impact^®
With an estimated 14.2 billion internet-connected devices currently in use and a projected increase to 25 billion by 2021, the challenge to identify, analyze and mitigate IoT threats has dramatically increased. This new platform offers necessary capabilities for data collection, analysis and automated defense that can provide small businesses and home users with added protection.