What is the internet of things?

There’s a new wave of technology entering our daily lives and its impact will turn them upside down. 

 

The internet of things is predicted to cause the same disruption to society as the transformational impact of the printing press in the 15th Century and the internet-induced information revolution in the late 20th Century. 

 

Essentially, the internet of things is a catchall phrase for the array of devices, appliances, vehicles, wearable material, and sensor-laden parts of the environment that connect to each other and feed data back and forth. 

 

It’s already here, but its adoption is likely to accelerate and will thrive by 2025, according to a recent report by the Pew Internet Project. And our own internet of things research revealed 38 percent of small businesses expect to adopt smart devices and the internet of things within the next two years.

 

Technology analyst Gartner predicts a thirtyfold increase in connected devices from 0.9 billion in 2009 to 26 billion by 2020. 

 

Scott Morrison, senior vice president and distinguished engineer at CA Technologies, told Information Week recently that this rapid growth is aided by the relatively low cost of adding internet of things capability to consumer products. 

 

"The big problem we're seeing these days is, in so many cases, people are rushing to get products out, and they're not putting the time and effort into really securing these devices up front," said Morrison. 

 

Smart TVs, for example, are fast becoming standard and it is likely that consumer product manufacturers will increasingly add internet of things compatibility regardless of the benefit. Gartner predicts many homes will have a host of "ghost" devices with unused connectivity, either because the software hasn’t been connected or that the products have the internet of things functionality but customers do not use it. 

 

But who is securing these billions of devices? Device manufacturers are certainly showing no signs of building in security as standard. 

 

Security technologist Angela Orebaugh writing for Tech Target said: “Despite the promise of the internet of things, when it comes to security, I am seeing history repeat itself. 

 

“As a long time security technologist, I've seen the evolution of once secure technology become connected to the internet and targets for attackers – first mainframes, then servers, desktops, VoIP and mobile devices. Next in line is the internet of things.”

 

Enterprise security company Proofpoint recently discovered that an internet-connected fridge was part of a botnet of consumer devices and machines that were linked together to send more than 750,000 spam and phishing emails.

 

The addition of internet connectivity to objects such as fridges, washing machines, and media players has created a new raft of devices and endpoints that hackers can exploit for purposes of generating spam, organising denial of service attacks, or to steal the valuable data that all these devices produce and collect. 

 

The challenge is there for security experts and practitioners to raise the issue and ensure that endpoint security is being considered. 

 

Endpoint security needs to be able to cope with the huge numbers of devices that need to be secured as they connect to the internet and manufacturers need to start building in security features as well as Internet compatibility. 

 

This will only happen if businesses using the internet of things challenge manufacturers to develop better security measures for their products.

 

Lastly, we can all play our part as consumers by purchasing devices with built-in security and let companies whose products lack security know why you haven't purchased their products. 

 

Adopting some basic security principles would help too. Secure the devices you are purchasing. Change the default passwords and enable the security features.