Weekly IP Buzz for the Week Ending May 14, 2021

In this week's post, we see that, as IoT is increasingly used in businesses, learning how to secure IoT devices from hackers is important.

Does Your Company Know How to Secure Its IoT Devices?

As the Internet of Things (“IoT”) has made itself increasingly relevant across all industries, smart devices have become especially common in the workplace. As a result, privacy experts across the nation have noted a steep rise in cyberattacks on IoT devices as more and more smart devices are being used in industries that are relatively new to using IoT connectivity.

Every day IoT is utilized in new and exciting ways. Whether it is a new industry finally “coming online” with IoT or an already established IoT industry finding a new channel to utilize the technology, it is clear that IoT is here to stay. As we have often blogged, IoT refers to the Internet of Things, which is technology that now allows for smart devices to stay “online” indefinitely while being able to receive, track, and send data wirelessly. These devices can be used to monitor everything from a patient’s blood glucose levels to a satellite’s uptime. While an industry’s need for IoT devices may vary, the use of IoT devices is steadily increasing across the board. For example, IoT devices have become incredibly popular in healthcare. Just earlier this year, one health system in southwest Missouri disclosed that they extensively use more than 17,000 IoT-connected devices in the day-to-day management of their services.

But as IoT technology becomes more widely accepted, it has also become a more high-profile target for hackers. Such a problem is compounded by the fact that there are so many different manufacturers of IoT devices as so many companies want to cash in on IoT’s popularity. This makes it harder to ensure that consumer devices have adequate protection in place against hackers and cyberattacks.  

Read the full article here.

Click to read the previous Weekly IP Buzz on Thriving Attorney.

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In addition to publishing Thriving Attorney, Darin M. Klemchuk is founder of Klemchuk LLP, a litigation, intellectual property, and transactional law firm located in Dallas, Texas. Click to read more about Darin Klemchuk's practice as an intellectual property lawyer. For more on the latest developments in IP law, see the blogs Ideate and IP Questions Answered.