Dive Brief:

• A group of companies, including both technology and financial companies, have formed a group dedicated to setting a new standard for securing Internet of Things applications using blockchain technology, Reuters reports. 

• The group includes Cisco Systems, Bosch Ltd, Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Foxconn Technology Group, security company Gemalto and blockchain startups Consensus Systems, BitSE and Chronicled Inc. 

• Companies like application maker Bosch want to make sure as they use more IoT in their products, those devices are secure and are looking toward blockchain technology to help. "Being able to create a tamperproof history of how products are manufactured, moved and maintained in complex value networks with many stakeholders is a critical capability," said Dirk Slama, chief alliance officer at Bosch Software Innovations, in an interview with Reuters.

Dive Insight:

There are now several groups dedicated to advancing blockchain technology.

Security experts have warned for years that many IoT devices are insecure. But as the use of IoT devices has grown, security concerns have grown as well, especially after hackers proved IoT devices could easily be taken over to perform DDoS attacks. Recently, Gartner predicted that 21 billion IoT devices will be used globally by 2020, so the issue of IoT security needs to be nipped in the bud.

While Blockchain is primarily known for its uses in the financial industry, one of the key appeals of is that transmissions and movements can be audited through log data, so the technology has potential for a wide range of uses. The new group wants to explore creating a new blockchain-based security standard for IoT that companies across multiple industries could adopt to ensure a common approach to the problem.