It is the technological dream. As you head home from work, your phone beams a signal to your house. As you’re navigating traffic, various devices around your home become active. Lights come on, heating or cooling starts up and the kettle starts to boil. All in anticipation of you walking through the front door. This is the Internet of Things.
What is the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an internetworking of physical devices that can collect and exchange data together via the internet to provide services and automation to you. It isn’t limited to residential applications either. Companies like Amazon use the IoT in their warehouses. Employees carry devices that can lead them exactly to the items on a consignment list so that they can prepare products for shipping faster.
The number of interconnected IoT devices is also growing steadily. Predictions say that there will be at least tens of billions of these devices by 2020. A big concern, however, is the serious security flaws that have been discovered in so many Internet of Things devices.
Serious security flaws
In July 2014, two security analysts were able to remotely seize control of a Jeep Cherokee’s brakes and other critical systems through IoT devices built into the car. This prompted Chrysler to recall over a million cars that were affected. Samsung were forced to admit, in February 2015, that their smart TV’s were listening in on user’s personal conversations and transmitting them to a third party. In September 2015, the FBI issued a public service announcement about the risks of using IoT devices.
More recently, in September 2016, a vast Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack was launched on a security researcher’s website. Once they got back online, they traced the attack to a network of ‘bots’, machines infected with code to make it possible for an attacker to hijack and use their resources in the attack. These bots were made up of infected computers but also many IoT devices.
The main security flaws in Internet of Things devices are:
- Poor or non-existent encryption of communication
- Reliance on uniform factory passwords
- Lack of firmware updates or reliance on manual updating of firmware
- Complex User Interfaces (UI)
- Gathering of user data without user knowledge
What can be done?
Many of these issues are the manufacturer’s responsibility but it is also important that people educate themselves about the dangers posed by IoT devices. For example, when installing an IoT device, ensure that you change the default username and password. Simply completing a step like that can greatly increase the security of a device.
Checking the process for updating a device’s firmware, and ensuring it receives regular updates, will also help keep your device more secure against casual attacks.
For organisations, the IoT poses a different challenge. They need to develop robust internal policies to govern their employees’ use of IoT devices at work and their own use of IoT devices in the workplace. An employee unwittingly connecting an infected IoT device to a work computer can cause serious problems. They also need to be aware that IoT devices they use can collect and share data. It is the company’s responsibility to ensure that they do not install IoT devices that can capture and share sensitive information.
You can still benefit from the Internet of Things without worrying about security flaws. Rule Technology have the expertise to help you get the most out of the Internet of Things with the least amount of risk. Contact us today on 1300 823 226 and find out how you can benefit from the IoT.
