Internet of Things (IoT) devices have become commonplace in critical operations across the world. Cars update their software over-the-air, hospital equipment sends real-time data, and industrial sensors manage supply chains. But the scale of IoT deployment has outpaced the systems meant to secure them. Devices come online faster than organizations can inventory, authenticate, or update them.
Every new device on your network introduces a new machine identity. These identities can quickly become untracked, misconfigured, or expired.
Without a unified view of every certificate and identity (both active and retired), measuring the scope of the IoT security challenge becomes more difficult, especially in the face of explosive device growth.
That’s where automated IoT security solutions come in: they find, track, and help manage connected devices across your network(s).
IoT Security Challenges
How confident are you that every device connected to your organization’s network(s) is properly secured against attacks? The IoT has become a digital trust problem: without scalable identity issuance and management through IoT security solutions, organizations cannot verify devices, protect data, or maintain uptime. The negative consequences only multiply as IoT ecosystems grow.
Existing systems meant to secure devices are overwhelmed by the sheer number of new machine identities on the network, leading to fragmented visibility and real-world impacts like outages and compliance issues.
Trust at scale is failing
While IoT devices often operate outside controlled IT environments for a decade (or more), they still require strong cryptographic credentials to prove authenticity. Most devices are shipped with weak default credentials (such as the admin password being “password”) or unpatched firmware, creating vulnerabilities right out of the box.
One poorly secured device could help an attacker bypass other protections to breach your organization’s network(s)—what happens if the attacker has their pick of several insecure devices? You could cut off access to one, and then the attacker can simply move on to the next unlocked backdoor.
Visibility is fragmented
With the IoT, security teams may not know how many devices or certificates are deployed across their cloud, edge, and legacy systems. How can you track what you can’t see? A unified, real-time view of all your devices is the best way to avoid security gaps and keep your IoT devices from falling through them. Unknown certificates can cause outages when they expire, and unmonitored device identities are attractive targets for attackers.
Manual processes can’t scale
Manual processes for device security and public key infrastructure (PKI) don’t scale. Think of it like juggling: one, two, three, even four balls can be easy to juggle because you have the time and focus to do so. But could you juggle ten balls, or a hundred? When it comes to certificate management, every “dropped ball” could be an outage or a security incident where an attacker gains access to proprietary information.
Spreadsheets, siloed certificate authority (CA) tools, and ad-hoc script tracking systems collapse under the weight of hundreds of thousands of machine identities, which could lead to frequent outages or slow recovery times. IoT security solutions, on the other hand, scale to support however many machine identities and certificates your organization manages.
Real-world effects
Poor IoT device security and certificate management can cause much more than a hassle for your IT and/or security teams. In a manufacturing environment, for example, a certificate outage can halt production lines entirely and cost millions in downtime. In healthcare or the automotive industry, outages aren’t just expensive; they have real consequences for human safety.
Imagine you’re driving a car with IoT features that are vital for road safety and vehicle operation, like extra sensors, cameras, and other driver assistance systems. What happens if a certificate outage interrupts the communication between the car and the backend service for self-driving features in the middle of your trip? In the best case scenario, you can do without or find a safe place to stop, but how long might it take to repair the outage? As our worlds and devices grow more interconnected, poor IoT device security could have disastrous consequences.
Intensifying compliance pressure
Regulations are being developed, especially in the automotive, industrial, and smart home industries, to demand continuous proof of IoT device security. For example, NIST provides a cybersecurity capability core baseline for manufacturing IoT devices based on regulations seen in Europe and in American advisory groups like the cloud security alliance (CSA). This baseline demands that IoT devices are uniquely identifiable, fully protected from unauthorized access, able to be updated by authorized parties, able to report on their cybersecurity states, etc.
However, without centralized visibility or automation through IoT security solutions, it’s nearly impossible to meet that requirement for every single device.
Security standards for consumer IoT devices are also being scrutinized, forcing every company making and managing IoT devices to improve their processes and meet new or updated regulations. Failing to comply with regulations can mean fines or even legal action against your IoT security solutions.
Building Digital Trust with IoT Security Solutions
You need strong PKI management to strengthen your IoT device security. Certificate authorities issue digital certificates that enable devices to prove their identities and encrypt their communications. But without lifecycle automation and visibility, PKI becomes another bottleneck: certificates still expire, outages still occur, and teams are still left fighting fires.
Continuous discovery and visibility
Automated IoT security solutions build a complete inventory of every certificate across devices, CAs, and cloud services so nothing is hidden. This way, visibility is not limited, helping you replace certificates before they expire, no matter where they are in your organization’s infrastructure.
Lifecycle automation
Certificates are issued, renewed, and revoked automatically to prevent outages and reduce manual effort. These automated processes scale as more certificates and identities are added to your organization. With a more than 40% surge in IoT, BYO mobile, and other devices being used in company networks, only an automated tool can manage the sheer volume of certificates needed to keep an organization’s network secure.
Crypto-agility
IoT devices last for years. Cryptographic standards change much faster as criminals continue to innovate and adapt their approaches. This endless cat-and-mouse game of device security is impossible to keep up with using manual processes. Introducing automation now is one way your organization can stop even the latest threats at scale across your network(s). Agile platforms allow re-issuing certificates across fleets to meet evolving standards, including post-quantum cryptography (PQC).
Cloud-first flexibility
The IoT spans edge devices, hybrid cloud, and embedded systems. Solutions must integrate seamlessly across this landscape without adding complexity, ensuring your business can adapt and scale as needed without IoT security concerns.
Proactive security teams
By consolidating disparate tools and automating workflows, IoT security solutions reduce team burden and shift operations from reactive to proactive. Your security teams have enough to focus on with building stronger security processes today as well as strategizing for PQC; automating PKI strengthens your organization’s security posture now and in the future.
How organizations adapt for IoT security
Organizations operating IoT devices and interconnected networks must shift from reactive patching to more proactive lifecycle automation, often with hybrid PKI models supported by trusted partners. Teams under pressure to improve their device security can outsource PKI expertise or adopt managed PKI to reduce internal strain without sacrificing control.
Leaders who align their IoT security solutions and practices with broader machine identity strategies reduce outages, streamline compliance, and enable faster innovation for their organizations.
Conclusion: IoT Device Security Best Practices
IoT device security is about managing trust at scale, not just patching devices every once in a while. Device trust often boils down to strong security practices, protocols, and trusted automation tools to make everything work smoothly.
Adherence to best practices like continuous discovery, automation, orchestration, and crypto-agility define the difference between organizations that struggle, and those that thrive.
Use Keyfactor Command to implement these best practices and secure devices at scale while preparing for tomorrow’s cryptographic and regulatory needs.
