Imagine how the “future of living” is going to look like; say in 2020. I remember a story from one of the English textbooks; which talked of people buying oxygen cylinders for survival. According to the author of that story by the end of 2020; there would be a depletion of oxygen levels in the atmosphere due to rampant deforestation and pollution. I also remember a cartoon, we used to watch as kids, Jetsons; the foresight of the creators of the cartoon; is indeed very commendable. It is fascinating to watch how people travel at the speed of light in their space automobiles, different sensor driven machines which makes life easy.
Today the idea of such smart inventions is no longer confined to our imagination. Most of those concepts are coming true as a result of IoT revolution; Smart rooms that can detect your presence and adjust room temperature, music and what not to suit your needs, pillboxes that can detect to see if your ailing family member has taken his/her pills on time and so on. With the advance in technology, IoT security issues have also crept up.
Security Concerns
With so many connected devices; I am talking of devices that interact with us on a personal level; privacy is one factor that is going to get affected. A latest survey has proposed that 4.9 billion devices are going to be connected by the end of 2015 as a result of IoT revolution. If that is the case and if there are IoT devices that are already out there in the market, we need to ensure complete IoT security for these devices to make it secure enough. We have witnessed many cyber-attacks in the past, attacks on Sony entertainment to attacks that affect the National Defense. With IoT things are going to be even more complex. Wearables and other such devices integrated with sensors are going to be attached to us on a personal level.
Solutions to Consider
Thus we need to build applications that can address these security concerns. The products being developed should be tested in different ways; ways that can prevent hackers from encroaching and manipulating data. We need to make sure firmware or software updates are sent to the solutions that are already out in the market to prevent any form of attack. A no-compromise approach should be taken against any breach of IoT security.
Products should focus on the framework, it is going to be built on. As Internet of Things involves communication between so many devices; the level of security; the protocols ensure needs to be considered. The hardware designs should also be simple, secure and compact.
They should at the same time be powerful enough to process real time information and present it in ways that can reach the concerned person at the right time.
This way IoT solutions would no longer be a threat to our existence and “you” can very well recline, relax and enjoy the coffee; you remotely prepared using your IoT integrated smartapp.