INTERVIEW: Verizon believes operators must use their position as the backbone of IoT to create a security blanket to cover the variety of businesses, industries and even consumers.

At the recent Mobile 360 Privacy and Security event, Bharadwaj Pulugundla, Verizon’s IoT strategy and innovation manager (pictured), told Mobile World Live the sheer number of manufacturers, vendors and service providers “who form this vast, fast growing, not so mature ecosystem”, creates a “systemic risk” to IoT security.

Add to the mix consumer apathy in the form of mismanagement of devices, firmware updates and passwords, and you have a need for a widespread security system capable of building a “chain of trust”.

Operators are best placed to offer this. Using their core position as the providers of connectivity, operators can create awareness around IoT security among the “OEM providers, the platform providers, everybody including the consumer”, he said.

Pulugundla also discussed some of the biggest IoT security breaches to-date, including Mirai, Stuxnet and an exploit with potentially huge implications for the remote healthcare industry.

To watch the full interview, click here.