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Security best practices for IoT solutions

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This overview introduces the key concepts around securing a typical Azure IoT solution. Each section includes links to content that provides further detail and guidance.

The following diagram shows a high-level view of the components in a typical IoT solution. This article focuses on the security of an IoT solution.

Diagram that shows the high-level IoT solution architecture highlighting security.

You can divide security in an IoT solution into the following three areas:

  • Device security: Secure the IoT device while it's deployed in the wild.

  • Connection security: Ensure all data transmitted between the IoT device and the IoT cloud services is confidential and tamper-proof.

  • Cloud security: Secure your data while it moves through, and is stored in the cloud.

Implementing the recommendations in this article helps you meet the security obligations described in the shared responsibility model.

Microsoft Defender for IoT

Microsoft Defender for IoT can automatically monitor some of the recommendations included in this article. Microsoft Defender for IoT should be the frontline of defense to protect your resources in Azure. Microsoft Defender for IoT periodically analyzes the security state of your Azure resources to identify potential security vulnerabilities. It then provides you with recommendations on how to address them. To learn more, see:

Device security

  • Scope hardware to minimum requirements: Select your device hardware to include the minimum features required for its operation, and nothing more. For example, only include USB ports if they're necessary for the operation of the device in your solution. Extra features can expose the device to unwanted attack vectors.

  • Select tamper proof hardware: Select device hardware with built-in mechanisms to detect physical tampering, such as the opening of the device cover or the removal of a part of the device. These tamper signals can be part of the data stream uploaded to the cloud, which can alert operators to these events.

  • Select secure hardware: If possible choose device hardware that includes security features such as secure and encrypted storage and boot functionality based on a Trusted Platform Module. These features make devices more secure and help protect the overall IoT infrastructure.

  • Enable secure upgrades: Firmware upgrades during the lifetime of the device are inevitable. Build devices with secure paths for upgrades and cryptographic assurance of firmware versions to secure your devices during and after upgrades.

  • Follow a secure software development methodology: The development of secure software requires you to consider security from the inception of the project all the way through implementation, testing, and deployment. The Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle provides a step-by-step approach to building secure software.

  • Use device SDKs whenever possible: Device SDKs implement various security features such as encryption and authentication that help you develop robust and secure device applications. To learn more, see Azure IoT SDKs.

  • Choose open-source software with care: Open-source software provides an opportunity to quickly develop solutions. When you're choosing open-source software, consider the activity level of the community for each open-source component. An active community ensures that software is supported and that issues are discovered and addressed. An obscure and inactive open-source software project might not be supported and issues aren't likely be discovered.

  • Deploy hardware securely: IoT deployments might require you to deploy hardware in unsecure locations, such as in public spaces or unsupervised locales. In such situations, ensure that hardware deployment is as tamper-proof as possible. For example, if the hardware has USB ports ensure that they're covered securely.

  • Keep authentication keys safe: During deployment, each device requires device IDs and associated authentication keys generated by the cloud service. Keep these keys physically safe even after the deployment. A malicious device can use any compromised key to masquerade as an existing device.

  • Keep the system up-to-date: Ensure that device operating systems and all device drivers are upgraded to the latest versions. Keeping operating systems up-to-date helps ensure that they're protected against malicious attacks.

  • Protect against malicious activity: If the operating system permits, install the latest antivirus and antimalware capabilities on each device operating system.

  • Audit frequently: Auditing IoT infrastructure for security-related issues is key when responding to security incidents. Most operating systems provide built-in event logging that you should review frequently to make sure no security breach has occurred. A device can send audit information as a separate telemetry stream to the cloud service where it can be analyzed.

  • Follow device manufacturer security and deployment best practices: If the device manufacturer provides security and deployment guidance, follow that guidance in addition to the generic guidance listed in this article.

  • Use a field gateway to provide security services for legacy or constrained devices: Legacy and constrained devices might lack the capability to encrypt data, connect with the Internet, or provide advanced auditing. In these cases, a modern and secure field gateway can aggregate data from legacy devices and provide the security required for connecting these devices over the Internet. Field gateways can provide secure authentication, negotiation of encrypted sessions, receipt of commands from the cloud, and many other security features.

Connection security

  • Use X.509 certificates to authenticate your devices to IoT Hub or IoT Central: IoT Hub and IoT Central support both X509 certificate-based authentication and security tokens as methods for a device to authenticate. If possible, use X509-based authentication in production environments as it provides greater security. To learn more, see Authenticating a device to IoT Hub and Device authentication concepts in IoT Central.

  • Use Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 to secure connections from devices: IoT Hub and IoT Central use TLS to secure connections from IoT devices and services. Three versions of the TLS protocol are currently supported: 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2. TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are considered legacy. To learn more, see Authentication and authorization.

  • Ensure you have a way to update the TLS root certificate on your devices: TLS root certificates are long-lived, but they still might expire or be revoked. If there's no way of updating the certificate on the device, the device might not be able to connect to IoT Hub, IoT Central, or any other cloud service at a later date.

  • Consider using Azure Private Link: Azure Private Link lets you connect your devices to a private endpoint on your virtual network, enabling you to block access to your IoT hub's public device-facing endpoints. To learn more, see Ingress connectivity to IoT Hub using Azure Private Link and Network security for IoT Central using private endpoints.

Cloud security

Next steps

To learn more about IoT security, see: