November 10, 2014

How To Define The Internet of Things – Security First

By Daniel Price

Define Security First

Given the amount of prose dedicated to the internet of things, it would hardly be foolish to assume that the term is well-defined and well-understood. In reality the opposite is true – professors, tech companies, the media, and individual blogs all disagree on what exactly falls under the umbrella of internet of things.

The problem seems to be that until recently, the internet of things was a relatively niche area. Its gadgets hadn’t yet become mainstream and ubiquitous, all-compassing connectivity was nothing but a glint in the eye of tech giants. However, today the term has become incredibly broad. It includes everything from Apple’s smart watch to city planning and from airport technology to health monitoring. It’s so broad that almost any internet-connected device can reasonably claim to be part of it.

The problem is comparable to that faced by cloud computing five years ago. At the time, the term ‘the cloud’ seemingly referred to everything stored online in some way – as if the entire cloud was one single model. As the market developed and matured, and the adoption of the cloud became increasingly widespread by personal and business users, a more refined set of terminology developed. Today it has been broken down into a number of subsets – for example, PaaS, SaaS, IaaS, etc.

As the internet of things sector matures and the industry develops, we will no longer be able to bundle all these very different things under one generic umbrella term. Much like ‘cloud’ or ‘big data’ in the past, it’s incredibly overused, and to some degree, almost too vague to be useful.

Security

The answer appears to be rooted in security. As with the important distinctions in cloud computing – each which requires the business using the service to negotiate a different balance between trust and control with the cloud provider – a similar set of distinctions must now be made for the internet of things.

After all, it is a significant challenge to establish trust and control across an enormous range of ‘things’, particularly when they are widely distributed, deployed on a scale of millions, and handle highly sensitive data. The information flowing through a network of smart ovens is very different from the information generated by a installation of earthquake detectors. Therefore, it is impossible to discuss to define the internet of things effectively without first breaking it into parts. Failure to separate the IoT into differing levels of security will lead to trying to secure all data on all devices – an impossible task.

How or what those terms may be is a job for skilled professionals – the same professionals who secure nearly every website on the planet and the payment systems we use every day. The coming years should be a fascinating time.

By Daniel Price

Daniel Price

Daniel is a Manchester-born UK native who has abandoned cold and wet Northern Europe and currently lives on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. A former Financial Consultant, he now balances his time between writing articles for several industry-leading tech (CloudTweaks.com & MakeUseOf.com), sports, and travel sites and looking after his three dogs.
Steve Prentice

Episode 21: Building a better backup – getting the whole organization to play better in the sandbox

Building a better backup – getting the whole organization to play better in the sandbox [...]
Read more
David Dymko

Episode 17: Diving deep into Kubernetes

Working with virtual machines and or Kubernetes A conversation with David Dymko, Director of Engineering [...]
Read more
finOps-tech

Cloud FinOps in the Age of AI: Key Trends

AI Era: Key Trends in Cloud FinOps Cloud FinOps goes beyond simply saving money on [...]
Read more
David Cantor

Impact of AI in Storytelling and Creativity 

These are monumental topics that command volumes of diligent research, backed by empirical evidence and [...]
Read more
Bright Data

10 Leading Proxy Services: Enhancing Your Online Security and Privacy

10 Leading Proxy Services In the realm of digital technology, proxies emerge as critical tools, [...]
Read more
Rakesh Soni

Cultivating a Culture of Cloud Innovation: Elevating Your Business Potential

Cloud computing has emerged as a game-changer, revolutionizing how organizations operate and transforming their growth [...]
Read more

SPONSOR PARTNER

Explore top-tier education with exclusive savings on online courses from MIT, Oxford, and Harvard through our e-learning sponsor. Elevate your career with world-class knowledge. Start now!
© 2024 CloudTweaks. All rights reserved.