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May - 2016 issue

IoT- Security vs Neo Tech Advancements, What do we Need?

By Vignesh Anantharaj

The scenario from the movie i-Robot seems to be taking a more realistic shape in today’s world, automated washing machines, music players that respond to a single word “play“. Cars that ride on their own without human intervention. Robots that can analyze the chances of survival of individuals in an accident in real time, and save the more grievously injured first. We are indeed in the stone age of the I-Robot era. All of these might seem exaggerated to us today, but they all begin with a single step, i.e giving the power of analysis and data collection to everyday devices and deriving insights from the same. Or in simpler terms as we already know it, IoT!

We are already in the era where Big Data and analytics has taken over our lives, all our online activities are being analyzed by our online fashion retailers, by our banks, and a host of corporate houses, because today, Data is money. Market research organizations with their Associate analysts and strategists monitor our every move on social media to derive critical insights to put forth the right products to the right audience and sell the same to enterprises.

But as we see in the movie I-Robot, the biggest problem in IoT can be Security. The way in which robots disobey the three laws of robotics and try to overthrow humans is just a very highly exaggerated version of what can go wrong if an IoT device or mesh is compromised into the wrong hands. Hence it is of utmost importance to every single IoT vendor today, to not get lost into improving the technological capabilities so much that there is ignorance towards answering the question “what if it falls into the wrong hands?”! As many blogs, magazines point out today, it is crucial for security to be the foundational Structure in all IoT products. Additionally in the long term , building of a strong consensus is needed on how to implement security in IoT on the device. Although many experts argue that it is unrealistic to compress 25 years of evolution in security into (to be)simple everyday IoT devices, the onus still lies on bigger software organizations with enough R&D and firepower to think of simple yet effective security tactics that can be deployed to avoid unwanted IoT security lapses in the future.

Vignesh Anantharaj
Managing Editor
vignesh@cioreview.in