IoT Evolution Expo Security Panelists Note the Power of Metadata

Digi International
November 03, 2015

Metadata can tell a story just as well as, and maybe even better than, actual content in communications.

“The metadata may actually be more revealing than what you’re trying to protect,” said Matt Ramsay, vice president of business development at Accelerated Concepts.

Ramsay was a panelist yesterday for the IoT Evolution Expo session called “The Core of Securing Networks”. Rohini Pandhi, senior product manager of PubNub, was also on the panel, which was moderated by Clay Melugin, senior partner RMAC Technology Partners.

But the discussion was not reserved for these three session speakers. The audience was welcomed to participate in the discussion. In fact, one audience member took the metadata discussion a step further, suggesting that if you want to know when the U.S. military is getting ready for a big operation, you might be able to gauge that if calls for pizza delivery from the site are up.

The conversation eventually turned to a discussion about how Ramsay believes it’s important to bring security to the endpoint, or as close to the endpoint as you can.

Walling off is not the answer, he said, but layering can help. If you want to protect a house you can get a fence, a dog, put bars on the windows, and more – the point is there are multiple layers of protection. The same is true with networks and endpoints.

“It’s more than just bringing security to the appliance,” he said.

“You can’t always control you network,” he added, so take the network as close as you can to the endpoint, and take a layered approach in the network.

Melugin added that a recent 60 Minutes report featured a security expert showing how a hacker was able to read Gmail before it even got sent.

“It’s happening in the network,” he said.

“I can depend on the U.S. mail service to deliver my letter,” Melugin added. “I just don’t know how many people read it.”