X-Force Red On IoT Hack Anything And Everything Mission

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31 August 2018

An elite team of hackers has been commissioned to disrupt IoT technologies in industrial, consumer, automotive and cash dispensing technologies.

Codenamed X-Force Red, the teams are not the henchmen and women of some real life Bond villain but groups brought together by the IBM Security Opens Network at four secure testing facilities around the world - two in America (Atlanta and Austin), and one each in England (Hursley) and Australia (Melbourne).

The new Labs will feature an autonomous team of hackers. These secure locations will allow X-Force Red to find vulnerabilities in devices (hardware and software) before and after they are deployed to customers.

Black Hat Conference

The move was officially announced at IBM Security's Black Hat Conference in August.

In just two years, IBM X-Force Red has grown its penetration testing client base by over 170 per cent. This growth has led to an increase the number of X-Force Red practitioners - doubling over the past year. Some of the recent additions to the Force include: Ivan Reedman (aka the ToyMaker), Global Hardware Security Lead; Thomas MacKenzie, European and Automotive Practice Leader; and Daniel Crowley, Global Research Director for X-Force Red.

Hack anything to secure everything

"IBM X-Force Red has one mission – hack anything to secure everything," said Charles Henderson, Global Managing Partner, IBM X-Force Red. "Via X-Force Red Labs, we have the ability to do just that, in a secure and controlled environment. Whether it's the newest smart phone that hasn't been released, an internet-connected refrigerator, a sensor on an air conditioner or a new ATM, we have the capability to test, identify and help our clients remediate vulnerabilities before the bad guys can exploit them."

IBM Security offers an advanced portfolio of enterprise security products and services supported by IBM X-Force which enables organisations to effectively manage risk and defend against emerging threats. IBM monitors 60 billion security events per day in more than 130 countries and has been granted more than 8,000 security patents worldwide.

Picture: Some of the X-Force Red hacking 'veterans'.

Article written by Robin Snow | Published 31 August 2018

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