Global industries have been embracing IoT devices in recent years to address a variety of operational and business problems. Every walk of life, from manufacturing to health, construction and education now looks to connected smart devices for the ability to address the ever-changing needs of the world. Fortune Business Insights projects that the global IoT market will reach $1.85 Trillion by 2028.

Let’s now ask the question: Will IoT “things” really need an IP address? The answer is yes in today’s Internet. This is because the things include servers, switches, routers, firewalls, routers, tablets with IP to IP connectivity, and phones. A unique-to-the-world IP address is not necessary because of network address translation and private networking addressing. Multiple machines can have the exact same address.

When we talk about fridges, clothing and thermostats, as well as light bulbs and light bulbs, we need to ask ourselves: Does each one of these items have to be on the Internet? Do they all have to have a unique IP address? It doesn’t seem so.

Why no IP address?

The “Fog computing” concept appears to support this. It is a distributed edge computing paradigm. Machine-to-machine computation and storage take place in a “fog”, such as a home or car. The cloud then communicates with it periodically. Local clusters of devices may interact without referring to the Internet. Locally collected data could be used to bridge to a smarter device that has intelligence and acts as an integrator to the cloud. The smarter device would be able to use traditional IP addresses while the feeder devices might not.

Today, Bluetooth and RFID are two examples. Your iPhone has an IP address. The Bluetooth speaker it connects with rarely has one, as it uses a Bluetooth connection rather than an IP-to-IP connection. This allows you to hear music.

Similar to the above, your car’s RFID (E-ZPass) device on the windshield interacts with the booth to charge for toll road travel. Although IP addresses are not required for toll interactions, you will still receive an email billing statement. This is the second part. The device that contacts you requires an IP address.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that RFID devices do not need addresses. It’s just that the RFID domain 96 bits is different than the Internet address space. Passive RFID tags are limited in resources and can’t talk IPv6. A bridge or translator is needed. A traditional IP address is not required at this interface, but hybrid RFID/IPv6 devices can be talked about for their versatility.

IP is versatile. It can be used wirelessly (WiFi/WiMax, 4G, LTE), as well as wired (Ethernet, SONET, SONET, etc.). It works over wired (Ethernet and SONET), as well as wireless (WiFi, WiMax, 3G, 4G, LTE, etc.). communications. Primary internet access is possible for IoT if distance or power is not an issue. However, it is not necessary. It is possible to have local computing and networking, as well as IP connectivity to the mainland from heterogeneous islands.

This is an IoT view that is more federated. Regardless of the outcome, it is important to remember that there won’t be enough addresses.

IoT devices: Why is there no public IP address

Bad actors are more likely to target these devices for their evil purposes, despite the increased visibility. Kaspersky, a cybersecurity service provider, reported that there were 1.5 million attacks on IoT devices using the Telnet protocol in the first six months of 2021.

Hackers are often looking for illegal access to devices and networks through Internet Protocols (IP). IoT deployments with large devices fleets are particularly vulnerable to public IP addresses.

The risks associated with public IP addresses

An IP address is essentially an identifier of a user that connects to the internet. Users are assigned public IPs by their ISP. They cover entire networks and each device in that network connects to the internet using the same identifier. This allows remote monitoring and tracking of every IoT device within a deployment.

Bad actors can also gain access to every device. Hackers can exploit various vulnerabilities to gain access to your network, steal data, launch DDOS attacks or infect your system by running ransomware. These search engines are also publicly available and can be used to scan public IP addresses looking for vulnerabilities. This could potentially illuminate hundreds or even thousands of bugs within one fleet.

This is all to say that a public IP address poses a significant security risk that must be considered when designing a deployment.

How do you secure IoT deployments?

Public IP addresses can cause serious security problems for your system. It is best to avoid using them. There are many options available for deployments in which this is not possible. These solutions range from best practices to avoid common errors to powerful tools to protect your data against all types of hackers.

Let’s begin with changing default passwords to all devices (including sensors and routers), and then keeping your systems up-to-date with security patches and firmware updates. While this won’t completely eliminate the risk of incursions it will make it more difficult for hackers to access your data. Most breaches are caused by insecure devices.