NCTA Pushes CableLabs' Micronets System as Tool in IT Security Arsenal

The CableLabs-developed Micronets premises network management system isn't a panacea for possible security threats to IoT devices and networks, but can blunt the effects through real-time threat detection and network segmentation, NCTA blogged Wednesday. CableLabs said Micronets uses device fingerprinting and dynamic identity techniques to organize network-connected devices into "micronet" trust domains and manage their interconnectivity. CableLabs said Micronets is designed for relative ease of use, with "easy onboarding of new devices with minimal know-how" while also allowing users to simply identify connected devices. It said using different micronets allows isolating security threats, like a particular hacked device, from damaging the entire network so attackers can't get easy access to devices in other trust domains. NCTA said the rise of botnet attacks, particularly distributed denial of service attacks, points to the need for systems like Micronets, which could have prevented the Mirai botnet attack in October 2016. CableLabs said beyond Micronets, it's working on better compromised-device detection, DDoS monitoring and IP-address spoofing prevention, and taking part in Open Connectivity Foundation efforts toward an IoT specification standard.