Aeris has launched IoT Watchtower, a fully integrated security offering for cellular IoT.

IoT Watchtower delivers enterprise visibility and control to prevent IoT security breaches, reducing the impact of any IoT security event, improving operational efficiency and ensuring regulatory compliance.

This comes at a pivotal time. IoT devices are already a primary target for cyber attackers looking to penetrate enterprise networks. In its 2024 Cyber Threat Trends Report, Deloitte found a 400% increase in IoT malware attacks across various industries. And Forrester predicts a major IoT breach will disrupt a large class of devices in 2025.

“Enterprises can no longer afford to treat IoT security as an afterthought,” said Aeris CEO Aziz Benmalek, who recently joined the company (www.iotm2mcouncil.org/iot-library/news/iot-newsdesk/aeris-names-aziz-benmalek-as-new-ceo) to lead its expansion into IoT security. “With cyber attacks on IoT devices surging and threats becoming more sophisticated, businesses need a proactive, scalable option. Aeris IoT Watchtower is the first to give enterprises and mobile operators the network-based visibility and zero-trust security they need to confidently scale their cellular IoT programmes around the world.”

Watchtower includes two critical components – Awareness and Enforcement. Watchtower Awareness provides enterprises with deep visibility into IoT device behaviour and traffic, identifying threats as they happen, enhancing operational efficiency and ensuring regulatory compliance. Watchtower Enforcement lets network and security administrators implement secure access control policies based on identified risks and align their deployments with zero-trust security principles.

Watchtower integrates seamlessly with IoT Accelerator, the company’s cellular IoT connectivity management platform acquired from Ericsson’s global IoT business in 2023, to deliver secure cellular IoT at scale. Aeris operates the core network across 25 mobile operators and monitors a real-time database of every data session, including destinations, ports and protocols.

Using Aeris’ AI and known threat databases, IoT Watchtower provides real-time awareness of threats as they happen as well as policy-based controls to prevent attacks based on zero-trust networking and tools to stop or quarantine an active attack.

“Enterprises using Aeris IoT Watchtower have full visibility into the cyber risk of their IoT devices plus the tools to prevent or limit damage from an attack,” said Aeris chief product officer Jonathan Connet. “Best of all, it is completely frictionless with no agent or special SIM card required or proxy traffic to a security tool. IoT Watchtower does this all inline with the normal cellular data path.”

Mobile operators, manufacturers, providers and enterprises across verticals and geographies have embraced the power of IoT Watchtower. For example, Swisscom Broadcast Service (SBS), which operates Switzerland’s most extensive LoRaWan connectivity, is the first customer to leverage IoT Watchtower through Aeris’ long-time partnership with Swisscom. With Watchtower’s zero-touch deployment, SBS gains immediate visibility into the security posture of more than 8000 existing customer gateways and seamlessly automates monitoring and detection of security threats.

Industrial technology firm ABB Motion is also benefiting from Swisscom’s deployment of IoT Watchtower. ABB Motion, which provides IoT-enabled services to enhance the performance, efficiency and reliability of motors, generators and drives, now has security and automation capabilities through Swisscom’s IoT Watchtower offering.

Murata Manufacturing has adopted IoT Watchtower across its Zencross Alliance cellular IoT management ecosystem, an alliance offering an integrated hardware, firmware and network services platform designed to address the needs of globally distributed IoT.

Bridge Alliance, a mobile alliance for premier operators and their customers in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, spans 35 members who serve over a billion customers. It will deliver IoT Watchtower to add value to their existing enterprise IoT offerings.

North American fleet telematics provider LB Technology leverages Watchtower to monitor device traffic, detect anomalies and generate risk assessment reports to safeguard the sensitive data of its government and enterprise customers.

IoT devices have become integral to business, and the top enterprise target for attackers. That’s because many IoT devices are remote, mobile, aging and lacking basic security. Once compromised, these devices can provide attackers with a foothold to access sensitive systems and networks.

After observing around 600,000 smart devices, IoT Watchtower saw an alarming amount of device communications with the dark web where traffic is unobservable, and botnets and command-and-control servers typically live. It also exposed clear examples of persistent threats, many actual malicious events and devices communicating with known phishing sites and services.

Exploiting vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure and devices can have life-threatening consequences. Attackers manipulating utility grid devices can cause power outages. By compromising IoT devices in fleets, attackers can manipulate, exploit and interfere with vehicles, drivers and cargo. Compromised medical devices such as CPAP machines could put millions of people at risk.

In addition, regulations are becoming more stringent. The European Union’s Cyber Resilience Act and NIS2 Directive, along with the UK’s Product Security & Telecoms Infrastructure Act, require heightened security for IoT devices, prompting enterprises to act now to avoid costly breaches.

As a result of increasing threats and tightening regulations, the global IoT cyber-security market revenue is projected to more than double over the next five years, rising from $27bn in 2024 to $60bn in 2029, according to Juniper Research. The report’s authors say the 120% increase in cyber-security spend is due in part to a projected 91% growth in the number of global IoT connections in service over the next five years.

Learn more about Aeris (www.aeris.com) IoT Watchtower (new.aeris.com/iot-watchtower) at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, in Hall 7, Stand 7A9Ex.