With the internet of things (IoTs) upon us and 5G looming on the horizon, proponents of edge computing see a coming wave of cybersecurity problems. Having so many more devices at the edge transmitting and receiving information increases the attack surface and necessitates much tougher security protocols.

Maria Korolov points out the possible weaknesses in distributed computing infrastructure in this article published in DataCenter Knowledge:

With 5G expected to bring exponential growth in the number of devices and in traffic, those cybersecurity concerns are going to grow. “The key to security is a mindset that assumes devices are compromised until proven otherwise,” Smith said.

Unfortunately, companies are often less security conscious when it comes to their edge devices, not more. For example, passwords used to access the devices are often simple or default passwords.

Enterprises should require strong passwords or two-factor authentication, especially for administrator and root-access accounts, said Herb Hogue, senior VP of cloud, security, hybrid data center, and collaboration at PCM, Inc., an El Segundo, California-based IT solutions provider.

“We are still seeing a lot of brute-force happening, and unfortunately that brute force is often successful,” he said. When those credentials are compromised, the attackers may be able to leverage them to get higher privileges and penetrate the rest of the environment. “We see that particular use case very frequently, and it’s usually not noticed for many months.”

Another area where companies often have lax perimeter security is WiFi. “The WiFi at the edge needs to be extremely locked down, not just completely open,” Hogue said. “That’s just leaving the door open in many cases.”

Hogue advises that companies expand their use of network segmentation. Today, many segment the perimeter. They should also segment traffic types and have firewalls between the center and the branches.