PA Networks’ CEO: IoT Security Demands Endpoint Prevention

Securing the Internet of Things (IoT) from cyber attackers? It’s going to be a nightmare for IT security professionals–there’s only, say, potentially billions of doors available for hackers to probe for entry.

It’s only a “prevention mindset” and a “rethinking” of endpoint security that can keep the attackers at bay, according to Palo Alto Networks (PANW) chief executive Mark McLaughlin.

McLaughlin, Palo Alto Networks’ boss since 2011, holds an undergraduate degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served as an attack helicopter pilot, earning an Army Commendation Medal and Airborne Wings. So he doubtless understands potential threats from more than just an IT angle.

In a recent NetworkWorld interview, McLaughlin outlined why corporate IT should be concerned about security for the IoT and why endpoint prevention is the required approach.

Here are some excerpted highlights:

On securing IoT deployments:
“You have to have a prevention mindset, you have to be present everywhere, you have to have the capabilities to get better and better and better, [security systems] have to talk to each other to get highly automated outcomes. And that’s complicated already.”

On IoT endpoint security:
“But wait, it’s not complicated enough yet. Let’s have a billion more endpoints attached to this thing that we’re already worried about…When we get the Internet of Things, you’d better be able to actually do prevention at the endpoint because there’s going to be a lot more of them. That’s how a lot of these threats are coming into the networks today, on the endpoints. If you’re prevention oriented, say you want to be everywhere to stop [attacks] every time and you’re not physically present at that point, you just missed a massive opportunity to prevent something before it ever gets in in the first place.”

“You need to be completely rethinking endpoint security and you need to be seeking out technology that will actually prevent things at endpoints before it lands.”

On different endpoints:
“You’re definitely going to want it on the car you buy in three years from today, which is more and more just a computer wrapped around wheels. You want them on ATM machines. Most retailers in the world right now would like to have it on their point-of-sale devices right now.”