IoT Security Solutions

Frequently Asked Questions about IoT Security Solutions

How do IoT security solutions work?

IoT security solutions are intended to prevent bad actors from gaining access to your IoT devices. Most IoT security solution providers offer IoT device security solutions that center around buying and operating your own dedicated access points on your premises.

With Telnyx IoT SIM cards and Private Wireless Gateways, you can build a private LTE network, isolating your devices from the attack surface of the public internet without purchasing any custom hardware. Simply insert our SIM cards into your devices, set up a Private Wireless Gateway in the Telnyx Portal, and connect your corporate environment---whether that's an on-premise server, or a cloud endpoint in AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or any other cloud platform.

What's the best way to achieve IoT security?

The best way to achieve IoT security is to keep your IoT devices invisible to the public internet. That's easier said than done, since a given IoT device often relies on having a public IP address so that other devices, applications and services can send requests to that device.

Telnyx IoT SIM Cards give your IoT devices connectivity across the globe, and can be assigned public IP addresses for better interoperability with your apps and services. Combining IoT SIM cards with Private Wireless Gateways gives your IoT devices a private IP address that's reachable from anywhere inside your corporate network, but invisible to the public internet.

Why is the public internet dangerous for IoT device security?

The public internet is dangerous for IoT device security because IoT devices that are reachable from the public internet are susceptible to cyber attacks. Devices with public IP addresses can be compromised by known vulnerabilities. For a safe alternative, you should give your devices IP addresses that are reachable from inside your corporate network but invisible to the public internet. Private Wireless Gateways unlock this functionality for Telnyx IoT SIM cards.

Are IoT SIM Cards secure?

IoT SIM cards are not inherently secure, because they usually make devices accessible from the public internet. Devices that are accessible from the public internet are vulnerable to attacks from bad actors.

IoT SIM cards can be secure if their IP addresses are invisible to the public internet. Unfortunately, this precludes other apps, services and devices from making requests to those devices, thus severely limiting their functionality. With Private Wireless Gateways from Telnyx, you can assign IP addresses to your devices and reach them from any endpoint inside your corporate network, while closing off access to any endpoint from outside your network on the public internet.

Do IoT SIM card providers offer built-in IoT security solutions?

Most IoT SIM card providers don't offer built-in IoT security solutions. Telnyx does. Private Wireless Gateways allow you to connect IoT devices directly to your corporate network, opening them to receive and respond to requests from your apps, services and devices while keeping them invisible to the public internet. Eliminating this public attack surface mitigates a huge amount of cyberattack risk and enhances your IoT device security.

How can I prevent SIM swap attacks?

You can prevent SIM swap attacks by enabling theft prevention features in your IoT SIM card provider's portal. IoT SIM swap attacks occur when a bad actor physically steals a SIM card from your IoT device, inserts it into a device of their own and then uses the connectivity and access of that SIM card to gain access to your account information and potentially exploit the phone number associated with that SIM card to receive text messages and bypass SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA).

Telnyx has several built-in IoT security solutions that guard against IoT SIM swap attacks. Our built-in theft prevention features allow you to specify known device IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers for each SIM card, and automatically disable a SIM card when it's inserted into a device with an unauthorized IMEI number.

Aside from locking a SIM card to an IMEI number---or a list of IMEI numbers---Telnyx IoT SIM cards have numerous other IoT security solutions built-into our user portal. Each SIM card shows details of the device in which it is inserted, as well as the coarse location of that device. Users can also set up alerting on data usage and other SIM card activity. This unlocks a broad range of insights that users can leverage to detect when a SIM card has been stolen, and remotely deactivate that SIM card in seconds, all from within Mission Control Portal.