When Good “Things” Go Bad

I recently learned about the Internet of Things, or IoT. (I also recently coined my own acronym: TMA. Too many acronyms. Feel free to use it.) This is one of those “things” I kind of wish I hadn’t learned about.

According to WhatIs.com:

“The Internet of Things (IoT) is a scenario in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interactions. IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and the Internet.”

This is actually not a new concept, however recent technological advances have brought new concerns over data privacy, sovereignty and security, as highlighted at the 2014 Black Hat conference. While the hacks demonstrated at Black Hat were a bit dramatic, the 2014 Gartner security event also highlighted IoT security concerns for business.

According to Gartner’s research, 22% of businesses rank IoT as their top business concern. They predict by 2020, 60% of digital businesses will suffer a major service failure due to failure to manage digital risk when using new technology.

All of this is a bit daunting, even for the experts. In his 2012 talk for TEDxCIT, Dr. John Barrett lays out the following list of “things” which can now be made “smart” by giving them an IPV6 identity, the ability to communicate and be controlled, and senses/sensors:

Goods, objects, machines, appliances, buildings, vehicles, animals, people, plants, soil.

(That’s right, soil.)

He also predicts that within 20 years, each of us will be surrounded by 3,000 to 5,000 “smart things” every day. That’s a whole lot of data floating around on its own.

Source: Dr. John Barrett’s TedxCIT talk.

The truth is, we don’t know what the future holds. But we do know that making smart decisions now about data security can help mitigate the uncertainty of new technology. Start by scheduling daily backups of all your cloud data, today. Just in case your neighbor’s refrigerator hacks your network tomorrow.

When Good “Things” Go Bad