an article by Jimmy Jones, Head of Security at ZARIOT.

I recently saw an article detailing public transport concerns in two Scandinavian countries. It centres on remote connectivity to electric buses, built by a manufacturer from a country that the EU find of concern.

I don’t want to comment on the geopolitical aspects. That is for far more qualified individuals to discuss.  

What struck me was how the connectivity element of the solution could only be controlled by removing the SIM completely. Unsurprisingly, this was not seen as an option as the telematics, diagnostics, sensors and other connected subsystems are essential in new vehicles for safety and other fleet management. 

DNA of the solution

All IoT, whatever the use case, has the same basic DNA. A Device, a Network and an Application somewhere.  

If this was a WIFI or cable connected device, would the response be “disconnect it”?  

I don’t think so. I think a network engineer somewhere would be asked to login to the appropriate Cisco, Juniper or other device and add some controls. Yes, you would still need to risk assess the device and application, how they are used, what the threats are and the difficulty and likelihood of them happening, but you would add the IP whitelisting, VPN access controls, or whatever other suitable IP control option you can think of, first.     

How come when it is cellular connectivity, the only option is to discard the SIM? 

I think historically as an industry we have been so guarded no one actually considers telecoms part of the solution.  

Integrating telecoms

I bet we can all remember seeing IoT slides where there’s nearly a full blueprint of a device and a breakdown of every function of the application in whichever data centre or cloud it is hosted, and then a cloud for telecoms. 

What do we actually expect then when people are looking to fix a problem?  

In general IP, the network is often used to fix issues, to avoid the effort of resolving physical device issues, or writing individual exceptions or workarounds in application code.  

Telecoms has the tools to do the same, but we haven’t made enough people aware. Even if they did happen to know, it is pitiful how often the functionality is offered.  

I am very proud that ZARIOT buck that trend.  

• We do offer all our IoT customers the technical flexibility and security to fully support their solution. No matter what the size. 

• We can offer you data traffic shaping and controls.  

• We can show you how to secure your data and lock your devices connectivity down 

• We can provide deep packet insight of your device’s behaviour, and the alarming and reporting to dynamically inform you of anomalies.       

• We can make your connectivity an integral part of your IoT devices DNA.  

So don’t just unplug your SIM, speak to our team, and let your cellular connectivity do more. 

Let it perform the role it always should have and make it work for you.