Dark Things

Things you own or use that can’t talk using your current identity layer. They are dark to you the way dark matter is massive but invisible. You might notice them, but indirectly.

We were talking identity debt. Our interviewees talked-around dark things. Gear that can’t identify themselves or your other systems well enough to be full participants, or even useful members, in your architecture.

A few network and IIoT management products differentiate themselves by trying to surface, locate, and profile dark things on your network, an attempt to reduce this “known unknown.”

Are dark things in your world dark because they are old? Or are they dark because they use proprietary protocols? Were they slipped past or through your workflows by eager folks? Missed by a facilities walkthrough? Or inserted by malicious fiends?

How do you quantify the mass of dark things in your cyberspace? What identity can you elicit from them? Can you wrap or cobble together meaningful identity services from the darkness?

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