Hortonworks and Neustar join forces on IoT security

Open source, end-to-end data validation comes to the IoT

Hortonworks have launched an open source technology collaboration with Neustar. create powerful, business-friendly security and identity management tools for Internet-of-Things devices.

Hortonworks’ connected data platforms enable Neustar to extend its OneID identity management to the open source community, utilizing Hortonworks Data Platform and Hortonworks Data Flow, to enable the development of new industry-leading identity management and security solutions for IoT devices.

“IoT represents such a unique opportunity for our customers, but the security and management of this connection science is a major IT challenge,” said Hank Skorny, senior vice president of IoT at Neustar. “Hortonworks is a key open source collaborator that enables Neustar to extend its policy management to the device level.”

Central Management

Neustar OneID is an identity solution that delivers IoT certificate and identity management in the authentication and revocation of IoT devices. By integrating with HDP and HDF, Neustar is able to incorporate the functionality of Apache Ranger and Apache Atlas to extend management down to the device level.

This cloud-based management allows for central management of devices, with the ability to enforce policies based on user or device. This granular policy management enables more secure IoT devices for customers without the security implications of adding large numbers of devices to their network.

“Neustar has leveraged open source security and policy enforcement technologies to power OneID as well as Device Directory for mobile devices,” said Greg Pavlik, chief product officer at Hortonworks. “This is a true testament to our core belief that open source brings innovation to market faster and our commitment to helping our customers innovate faster with the community.”

Using Neustar’s Device Directory, its customers can register devices, creating a central repository for easy management and policy enforcement. Apache NiFi and Apache MiNiFi through HDF allow customers to extend the reach of the Data Distribution System (DDS) down to the device, whether it is online or offline. By doing so, Neustar OneID can be used to generate or revoke certificates for hosts, with the ability to quickly remove a compromised host or group of hosts. Once an issue has been resolved, OneID and HDF can bring the same hosts back up quickly and easily.

Neustar OneID will be able to sign and validate data, helping ensure its authenticity and alerting an organization to any issues. With end-to-end data validation extending from the edge to central management in the cloud, and with the ability to act once a compromised host is detected, Neustar promise customers greater peace of mind as they explore IoT.