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Skkynet Wins Best IoT Security Solution Award at M2M Expo 2015

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SkkyHub™ service recognized as secure, commercially available, end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solution with “Best IoT Security Solution” win.

Mississauga, Ontario, February 3, 2015 – Skkynet Cloud Systems, Inc. (“Skkynet” or “the Company”) (OTCQB:SKKY), a global leader in real-time cloud information systems, is pleased to announce that its  SkkyHub™ service won the Battle of the Platforms for Best IoT Security Solution at the M2M Evolution Conference and Expo in Miami on January 27, 2015. The M2M (machine-to-machine) show brings together CIOs, CTOs, managers, engineers, and other key players working to connect devices and machines on the Internet of Things (IoT). Live demonstrations of SkkyHub connected an on-site industrial control panel to the cloud, enabling show participants to interact with the system from their smart phones, manipulating the controls on the panel in real-time.

“On behalf of Crossfire Media, TMC and M2M Evolution, I am excited to announce Skkynet as a 2015 Battle of the Platforms Winner,” said Carl Ford, CEO, Crossfire Media, executive director of content, M2M Evolution. “Its award-winning SkkyHub is driving machine-to-machine advancements that are transforming what is possible in the Internet of Things. Skkynet truly deserves this award and I look forward to more innovative solutions from them in the future.”

“We are honored to win the Battle of the Platforms, particularly in the category of security,” said Ken Collins, Director of Product Development for Skkynet. “Our secure-by-design approach to the IoT means that individual devices, remote systems, and whole industrial plants can connect to each other via the cloud without any additional hardware or VPN, and without opening any firewalls or exposing any data to the Internet.”

Skkynet’s SkkyHub™ service allows industrial and embedded systems to securely network live data in real time from any location. Secure by design, it requires no VPN, no open firewall ports, no special programming, and no additional hardware. It enables bidirectional supervisory control, integration, and sharing of data with multiple users, and real-time access to selected data sets in a web browser. The service is capable of handling over 50,000 data changes per second per client, at speeds just a few milliseconds over Internet latency.

About Skkynet Cloud Systems, Inc.:

Skkynet Cloud Systems, Inc. (OTCQB:SKKY) is a global leader in real-time cloud information systems. The Skkynet Connected Systems platform includes the award-winning SkkyHub™ service, DataHub®, WebView™, and embedded toolkit software. The platform enables real-time data connectivity for industrial, embedded, and financial systems, with no programming required. Skkynet’s platform is uniquely positioned for the “Internet of Things” and “Industry 4.0” because unlike the traditional approach for networked systems, SkkyHub is secure-by-design. Customers include Microsoft, Siemens, Metso, ABB, Honeywell, IBM, GE, Statoil, Goodyear, BASF, Cadbury Chocolate, and the Bank of Canada. For more information, see http://skkynet.com.

About Crossfire Media

Crossfire Media is an integrated marketing company with a core focus on future trends in technology. We service communities of interest with conferences, tradeshows, webinars and newsletters. Crossfire Media has a partnership with Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) to produce events and websites related to disruptive technologies. Crossfire Media is a division of Crossfire Consulting, a full service Information Technology company based in New York.

About TMC

TMC is a global, integrated media company that supports clients’ goals by building communities in print, online, and face to face. TMC publishes multiple magazines including Cloud Computing, M2M Evolution, Customer, and Internet Telephony. TMCnet is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries, and is read by as many as 1.5 million unique visitors monthly. TMC produces a variety of trade events, including ITEXPO, the world’s leading business technology event, as well as industry events: Asterisk World; AstriCon; ChannelVision (CVx) Expo; Cloud4SMB Expo; Customer Experience (CX) Hot Trends Symposium; DevCon5 – HTML5 & Mobile App Developer Conference; LatinComm Conference and Expo; M2M Evolution Conference & Expo; Mobile Payment Conference; Software Telco Congress; Super Wi-Fi Summit – The Global Spectrum Sharing and TV White Space Event; SIP Trunking, Unified Communications & WebRTC Seminars; Wearable Tech Conference & Expo III; Fitness and Sports Wearable Technology (FAST) Expo II, WebRTC Conference & Expo IV; and more. Visit TMC Events for additional information.

Safe Harbor:

This news release contains “forward-looking statements” as that term is defined in the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future, and results of new business opportunities. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors, such as the inherent uncertainties associated with new business opportunities and development stage companies. We assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove to be accurate. Investors should refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in our annual report on Form 10-K for the most recent fiscal year, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

BYOD Impacts the Factory Floor

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The growing worldwide trend for workers to “bring your own device” (BYOD) to work has impacted the industrial space, according an IHS Technology survey.

The past few years have witnessed a remarkable growth in the popularity of smart phones and tablet computers. The Pew Research Center’s Mobile Technology Fact Sheet reported that by January 2014 58% of adults in the USA owned a smartphone, and 42% of them had a tablet computer.  A Nielsen Company report says that people in the UK used their smartphones nearly twice as much by the end of 2013 as they did in the beginning of that year.

With such broad usage of smartphones and tablets, it is not surprising that people expect to bring that power and convenience into the workplace. Indeed, this is rapidly becoming the case, as reported in the 2nd Annual State of BYOD Report issued last year by Good Technology.  According to their survey, 95% enterprises either support BYOD in the workplace, or are at some stage in planning or considering it.

These worldwide trends are resonating in the industrial space, according to Toby Colquhoun and Tom Moore at IHS Technology.  In a recent article, Mobile devices spread to the factory floor, they share the results of an IHS global survey of companies in the manufacturing and energy sectors.  Of the companies surveyed, almost half of them (46%) are currently allowing their employees to use smartphones and tablets at work, and another 11% plan to adopt such technologies within the next three years.

Integration of smartphones and tablets into the company network adds a potential new point of vulnerability for hackers/malware to exploit.

To clarify, this is not actually BYOD in most cases.  You won’t find many factory workers monitoring mission-critical systems on their personal cell phones.  Typically, companies that allow smartphones and tablets on the shop floor issue them to the personnel, preconfigured for the data they are authorized to access.  The investment in equipment is offset by the advantages of this portable technology for monitoring processes from anywhere in the plant, responding quickly to alarms, and in some cases doing supervisory control.

But not everyone sees it this way.  About 7% of the participating companies that are currently using mobile devices plan to discontine this kind of program within the next three years, and another 20% surveyed responded that that they have no plans to adopt the technology over that time period.  The reasons for this reluctance include device performance in an industrial setting, as well as concerns for the security of the data.

“Integration of smartphones and tablets into the company network adds a potential new point of vulnerability for hackers/malware to exploit,” states the report.  It also mentions concerns related to human error and carelessness, which can be addressed by company policy.  But the report does not mention how companies can protect their vital data from exposure to the Internet.

To ensure the success of BYOD in the industrial sector, security questions must be resolved. The approach of Skkynet’s Secure Cloud Service™ addresses these questions in a unique way. Details about the service will be shared in a Skkynet white paper to be published soon. Put briefly, the traditional architecture for industrial networking was not designed for access via the public Internet, because it requires opening the firewall into the production system. With the proper design, as implemented in the Secure Cloud Service, BYOD is not only possible in the industrial space, it can be secure, quick, and convenient. As this kind of high quality service becomes widely adopted over the next few years, we can expect to witness some remarkable changes taking place on the factory floor.