NIST's new take on IoT security

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has released updated guidance on how to develop secure systems from the bottom up in the hopes of starting a national dialogue on the growing importance of cybersecurity in the age of the internet of things.

NIST Fellow Ron Ross called the agency's Special Publication 800-160 the "most important publication I've worked on" in his 20-year career at NIST.

Ross, U.S. CIO Tony Scott and U.S. Chief Information Security Officer Greg Touhill announced the publication's release at the Splunk GovSummit on Nov. 15.

It urges organizations -- including federal agencies and commercial equipment and service providers -- to address security throughout the systems engineering process rather than "bolting on" firewalls, encryption and monitoring systems to operating systems and applications after they are purchased.

The goal is to build security into IoT devices in the way that safety features, such as seat belts and air bags, have been engineered into automobiles.

NIST bumped up the release date for the publication in the wake of the Mirai malware attack that used IoT devices to overwhelm internet infrastructure provider Dyn with a flood of traffic.

Design weaknesses in IoT devices, including discoverable default passwords and unalterable hardwired credentials, allowed attackers to take control of the devices.

Scott said the NIST publication sets the stage for future cybersecurity development to eliminate basic design flaws in internet-facing devices, which include consumer goods and critical infrastructure systems.

IoT cybersecurity "should be high on the agenda" for the incoming administration, just as it was during the Obama administration, he added.

Touhill said the document marks the beginning of a shift in thinking for federal agencies, product and system manufacturers, and the public, which will go from being victims reacting to cyberattacks to taking a new proactive approach backed by baked-in security for the billions of existing and future devices on the IoT.

During a press conference after the announcement, Ross said NIST officials are eager to talk with the incoming Trump administration about the guidance.

"The election transition is going on now," he said. "We've been through this before. We'll give the new administration time to settle in and then we will engage."

Ross added that "it's always a new dialogue" whenever a new presidential administration comes in, "but in 20 years, computer security has always been a bipartisan issue."

Officials hope device, hardware and software engineers will incorporate the guidance into their work, Ross said, adding that the techniques can be adapted to waterfall or agile development.

NIST designed the guidance to be as welcoming as possible and avoided making it mandatory for federal agencies, along the lines of Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2, the official U.S. government computer security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules. Ross said that given the diverse community of users, a mandatory approach would have been difficult to implement.

The guidance "should be the start of a national dialogue" about deeper cybersecurity for IoT devices and how those devices are used, and "win hearts and minds" of engineers and users along the way, he said.