Contribution to an article on the Internet of Things for Management Today. The journalist was looking to discuss ‘the effect it’s likely to have on the commercial world and how businesses will be able to capitalise on it in the future.‘
I would suggest that security is one of the biggest barriers to Trust for the Internet of Things, and there are some horror stories to support this: exposed webcams & baby monitors, Police body cams with the Conficker virus and Samsung fridges hacked for Gmail credentials!
It’s not just these millions of connected devices that pose a security risk, but the data that they collect. Look to Google’s NEST for example, it’s Cloud data could be used to ascertain if-when a user is at home.
An example of this is Shodan.io, a search engine for the Internet of Things (IoT), which can scan the internet for exposed devices: webcams, fridges, power plants! Many of these are vulnerable, with ‘security’ webcams being particularly at risk. Makes you think twice about that Baby Monitor.
It’s not just the large manufacturers and industry that need be concerned, it’s a for all – from the smallest Kickstarter IoT product to Driverless Cars (and the risks that a live hack entails).
We’re at a point that we need to look at developing set of Security Standards for IoT that all manufacturers must align to, not simply to safeguard the data of their customers but foster the trust that in consumers to make them new customers!