Software Licensing Featured Articles

IoT Security Threats Cause for Concern

By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor

We’re on the cusp of living The Jetsons’ lifestyle; our smartphones can control our thermostats and our ovens, should we forget to turn them off, and our houses can turn our lights on and off for us. Pretty soon, our refrigerators will be able to tell us and order for us our groceries as we run out of them. Our machines are getting smarter and they can talk to each other. It’s exciting, but it’s also scary.

Consider that the number of wireless devices will exceed 40 billion by 2020, and that includes everything within our homes – cameras, monitors, televisions, and more. We are moving towards a lifestyle that saves more time, increases convenience, contributes to the economy and allows us control over our appliances, but also increases our risk for compromised security.   

We’ve seen it in current events; there is the story about the Texas parents who were terrified when their child’s video baby monitor was hacked by an unknown perpetrator, or the stories of pacemakers being turned off, blood pumps shut down, taking control of entertainment systems in cars. These heinous acts have all been carried out remotely by unknown individuals.

While these modern tales of technology terror might make you reconsider using technology to simplify your life, the good news is IoT security has been put on the lists of many, including the federal government.

On the consumer side of things, users can take precautions to safeguard their devices, networks, and families, including changing default names and passwords on their devices, updating all firmware as it is available, and setting up a dedicated network just for IoT devices.

U.S. Federal Trade Commission chairwoman, Edith Ramirez, addressed the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year, warning companies to enhance privacy and build secure IoT devices. Developers should adopt a security-focused approach, reducing the amount of data collected by IoT devices, and increasing transparency and providing consumers with a choice to opt-out of data collection.

Even the Internet is still not 100 percent secure, so expecting IoT, which is still in its infancy, to be more so is simply unreasonable. Security is one of those things that is constantly evolving to meet new challenges with the advent of newer technologies. We can expect to see improved security measures as the market grows. There will be more demand, which means more investments, and that means better hardware, better systems, and a drive to compete with the best security has to offer.