IoT and Mobile Apps

By Harshit Agarwal

Founded by the global leaders in technology and product manufacturing firms, such as Comcast, Google, T-Mobile, and Amazon, the ioXt Alliance has expanded its security certification program for Mobile Apps and VPN applications. In its pursuit of establishing the best standards in IoT security and transparency in a multi-stakeholder and global IoT environment, ioXt Alliance has taken another leap in the direction. 

It has expanded its compliance security certifications in the Mobile Apps and VPN Apps profiles. The organization has different profiles for different types of devices and platforms, that are of consequence in the IoT world, namely – Android, Mobile, IoT, and now VPN.

Appknox, an ioXT Alliance member, offers compliance security certification as per the latest expansion done by the ioXT Alliance. 

ioXt Preview – Profiles, Standards, and Security Pledge

With different profiles and different rules and security and transparency compliances to govern them, ioXt Alliance is bringing more standardization and adding more layers of security benefitting both, the vendor and the consumer of IoT technology in any form. 

There is also a highly comprehensive and all-inclusive security pledge that has 8 clear principles that must be followed by the clients or brands that have joined their hands with the Alliance. These principles enforce security, transparency, and standardization across the partners that are also the vendors or stakeholders of the IoT domain. These vendors have to follow these regulations and convey all the important details, such as expiration dates of the security certificates, updates, and assurances, etc. 

With all the information readily available and disseminated properly across the consumers, they have direct control over the next course of action – changing the vendor, installing an update, getting troubleshooting information, and much more.

All these regulations and security compliances ensure transparency and also instils a sense of security and trust among the consumers or the end-users of the smart IoT devices. 

With such a set of established and industry-best practices, the ioXt Alliance is getting stronger with more and more industry names joining in, including AppKnox. 

Now, this recent expansion is going to bring more transparency and security standardization to mobile applications and VPN apps’ profiles. 

Appknox Joins the ioXT Alliance 

“The mobile app ecosystem is extremely complex when it comes to compliance testing, privacy, and security. We are ecstatic to join the ioXt Security Pledge that enables the solution providers and technology enablers, such as Appknox to “enforce” all of them across their clients without much ado.” – Subho Halder, Co-founder & CISO, Appknox

Appknox, a leader in the industry segment, also offers a compliance testing solution. The new Appknox ioXT Compliance Testing Solution empowers organizations to rapidly certify their IoT-connected mobile apps. 

What are the benefits of the ioXT Alliance and how are end-users going to benefit from it?

 1. Vendor certification becomes fast, cost-effective, and more secure

This expansion in the mobile apps and VPN apps speeds up the vendor certification process, via its fast and high-quality compliance program, all the while cutting down the costs and safeguarding the mobile app users in the IoT domain. 

2. More trust and confidence among the app users

It will ensure higher safety and enhanced security in the highly vulnerable IoT networks and will also add to the credibility of the VPNs in every audience cluster.

The customers can simply check the compliance details and if the app is ioXt Alliance compliant, they can install and use it without any second thoughts. Hence, this expansion of the security compliances in mobile apps and VPN profiles will spell higher security, more transparency, and greater trust on the behalf of the IoT vendor. 

3. More products, more brands, and more services

With the expansion of security compliance, many notable industry players, such as Afero, McAfee, VPN Private, Comcast, Leviton, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, OpenVPN Community, and Private Internet Access, etc, have joined hands with the ioXt Alliance. This means that the number of products, services, and brands that the customers and enterprise consumers can use has increased significantly. 

Not only this boosts healthy peer competition, but also keeps the variety in the domain of VPN and mobile apps intact!

So, the next time any business organization wishes to work with an ioXt compliant VPN vendor, they have enough choices and might also find they’re a tried and trusted brand on the list!

4. Different categories with set security and transparency guidelines

Any regular IoT network is an aggregation of multiple devices interacting over the internet, such as smart homes, home appliances, smart buildings, connected cellular apps, and vehicles, etc. Now, with so many devices in a single network, the customer might get confused regarding the vendor and his or her credibility. 

ioXt has taken care of it by creating different product categories with different and thorough guidelines for security and transparency on the global level, all the while bringing some order to the chaotic world of IoT. 

The compliance is effective only for those products and services that match or surpass these set guidelines, while the users only have to check for the ioXt SmartCert label while buying them.

ioXt Alliance – Certified Applications

1. IoT Authenticator

  • Comcast Xfinity Authenticator

2. IoT Controller Applications

  • Hubspace, powered by Afero (exclusively at The Home Depot)
  • Leviton GreenMAX DRC

3. VPN

  • ExpressVPN
  • Google One
  • McAfee Innovations
  • NordVPN by Nord Security
  • OpenVPN for Android (Community Version)
  • Private Internet Access VPN
  • VPN Private

The Road Ahead and Future Expectations

The Road Ahead and Future Expectations

With industry disruptions and technological innovations pouring from all the directions, such updates and expansions in the security compliances of the Alliance are a given. Apart from assuring the end-users about the product and vendor credibility, such standards also pave way for a self-help culture among the users, where they can access the ioXt compliance guides and find more about the information and things they are entitled to. 

The vendors can also make their lives easier by complying with just ONE global standard for all their products and services and don’t have to focus on getting more compliance certifications, all the while cutting down their costs. 

This, in turn, spawns more credible and transparent vendor-customer relations in every sector and industry.

For more detailed information about the security compliance, and gaining insights into the specifics, you can download a free sample Appknox ioXT compliance report here

About the Author

Harshit Agarwal

Harshit Agarwal is co-founder and CEO of Appknox, a mobile security suite that helps Enterprises and Financial institutions to automate mobile security. Over the last 6 years, Harshit has worked with over 300+ businesses ranging from top financial institutions to Fortune 500 companies to set up security practices helping organisations secure their mobile applications and speed up the time for security testing.

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