Skip to main content
Microsoft Security
A photograph of Male working on Surface Laptop 3 in PowerPoint with Surface Mouse and Surface Headphones.
2 min read

Afternoon Cyber Tea: Cybersecurity & IoT: New risks and how to minimize them

  • By Ann Johnson, Corporate Vice President, SCI Business Development

Recently, Microsoft announced our acquisition of CyberX, a comprehensive network-based security platform with continuous threat monitoring and analytics. This solution builds upon our commitment to provide a unified IoT security solution that addresses connected devices spread across both industrial and IT environments and provides a trusted, easy-to-use platform for our customers and partners to build connected solutions – no matter where they are starting in their IoT journey.

Every year billions of new connected devices come online. These devices enable businesses to finetune operations, optimize processes, and develop analytics-based services. Organizations are clearly benefiting from IoT as shared in the IoT Signals research report produced by Microsoft. But while the benefit is great, we must not ignore the potential security risks. To talk about how companies can reduce their risk from connected devices, Dr. Andrea Little Limbago joined me on Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson.

Dr. Andrea Little Limbago is a cybersecurity researcher, quant analyst, and computational social scientist at Virtru. With a background in social science, Andera has a unique perspective that I think you’ll find interesting.

Andrea and I talked about the role of automation in attacks and defense and how privacy and security advocates can come together to accomplish their overlapping goals. We also talked about how to safeguard your organization when you can’t inventory all your IoT devices.

It isn’t just businesses that are investing in connected devices. If you have IoT devices in your home, Andrea offered some great advice for protecting your privacy and your data. Listen to Cybersecurity and IoT: New Risks and How to Minimize Them to hear our conversation.

Lack of visibility into the devices currently connected to the network is a widespread problem. Many organizations also struggle to manage security on existing devices. The acquisition of CyberX complements existing Azure IoT security capabilities. I’m excited because this helps our customers discover their existing IoT assets, and both manage and improve the security posture of those devices. Expect more innovative solutions as we continue to integrate CyberX into Microsoft’s IoT security portfolio.

What’s next

In this important cyber series, I talk with cybersecurity influencers about trends shaping the threat landscape and explore the risk and promise of systems powered by AI, Internet of Things (IoT), and other emerging tech.

You can listen to Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson on:

§  Apple Podcasts—You can also download the episode by clicking the Episode Website link.

§  Podcast One—Includes option to subscribe, so you’re notified as soon as new episodes are available.

§  CISO Spotlight page—Listen alongside our CISO Spotlight episodes, where customers and security experts discuss similar topics such as Zero Trust, compliance, going passwordless, and more.

If you are interested in how businesses across the globe are benefiting from IoT, read IoT Signals, a research report produced by Microsoft.

In the meantime, bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity. Or reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter if you have guest or topic suggestions.