Announcing the IoT Security Grand Challenge Winners

The Internet of Things (IoT) is exponentially increasing the number and type of attack vectors, creating many new cybersecurity challenges for organizations and those responsible for defending the infrastructure. These new threats to data and physical security are a top concern for organizations as they seek ways to gain greater operational efficiencies and power new business models by expanding connections between people, process, data and things. Cisco understands that protecting all of the interactions of the IoT is crucial in enabling people and organizations to benefit from these advances.

The IoT requires new models for innovation, new architectures and new approaches to cybersecurity. With this in mind, earlier this year, we announced the Internet of Things Security Grand Challenge. As part of this industry-wide initiative, we invited the global community to propose practical security solutions to address the new security challenges the IoT and IoE presents. This initiative is one of several global efforts at Cisco to accelerate industry innovation and the adoption of breakthrough technologies that will contribute to the growth and evolution of the IoT.

Our outreach to the global community generated more than 100 entries from leading universities, businesses, industry start-ups and entrepreneurs worldwide with proposals for solutions in the following focus areas – Malware Defense, Security Credential Management and Privacy Protection.

After an extensive review process conducted by a team of experts, Cisco chose four innovative IoT security solutions as the winners of the Internet of Things Security Grand Challenge. These winners represent some of the most innovative approaches to enable people and organizations to benefit from IoT. Each winner selected was awarded $75,000 USD and is being showcased this week at the Internet of Things World Forum. The winning entries are:

Cornell Tech and Rice University: Physical Proof-of-Presence Protocols (P4) for Transient Connections in the IoT

Excalibur: Context-Aware Blockchain Naming / Discovery /Authentication

Carnegie Mellon University: Dynamically Controlling IoT Privacy Risks and Trade-offs with Fog Mediation

Aircloak and the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems: Anonymized Analytics through Cloaking

To learn more about the winners, visit https://ninesights.ninesigma.com/web/cisco-gc.

As more organizations adopt new business models related to the Internet of Everything (IoE) and IoT, their security solutions and processes must also adapt with this change. Now more than ever, organizations must be enabled to implement dynamic controls to manage the pace of change in their environments and address security incidents—before, during and after an attack.

Congratulations to the winners and for those of you who are at the IoT World Conference, be sure to check out the winning entries! www.ciscosecuritygrandchallenge.com