Security Experts Cite IoT Risks

Fingerprints found on critical infrastructure

Rick Merritt, Feb. 14, 2017 – SAN JOSE, Calif. - A cryptography expert has drafted a paper to show how a single smart light bulb could infect a smart city with malware in minutes. The threat was one of many discussed by a panel of experts in their annual report card on security at the RSA Conference.

In a separate session, the chairman of a U.S. congressional committee on homeland security raised an even more ominous specter. "The bad guys are leaving cyber fingerprints on our critical infrastructure, sending a message, 'Watch what you say and do because we can hit you from within,'" said Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas, 10^th District).

McCaul called for a new national cybersecurity plan coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security that mandates regular exercises and lays out strike-back options. "We are in the fight of our digital lives and we are not winning," said McCaul, who is briefed weekly on cyber threats including briefings that started last spring on Russian hacking related to the U.S. presidential election.

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