The web spider is not limited to desktop, Smartphone, but it has reached to home appliances, and domestic things, like refrigerator, smart television etc. that is named as Internet of Things (IOT). Do not get shocked, if you have a refrigerator in your house, will share, & send your data over WI-Fi connection in near future with other devices. IOT means any unique and identifiable device internally connected with the current internet infrastructure. According to Gartner IOT means, “Network of physical objects contains embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment”.
IOT can amass the data and many enterprises use it to make their product efficient and superior. IOT is a growing concept of the forthcoming generation that contains the networking of all devices to perform together as a single unit for a better life.
IOT In Growing Numbers:
Cisco predicted about 25 billion devices will be connected by 2015 and there will be 50 billion devices connected with each other by 2020. It is conceived that in the year of 2020, the ratio of world population and connected device will be 7.6 billion versus 50 billion devices.
Few IOT Devices And Benefits:
IOT devices help customers to save money, reduce the hassle of their daily life and provides a fresh experience. Smart TV, wireless speakers, network routers, Thermostats, refrigerator, door locks, and medical devices are few names come in IOT device categories. For example, Thermostats automatically adjust the temperature based on the past record of your usage pattern. It gathers data via internet connection and analyzes it for future usage. You can control the thermostats with your Smartphone.
Even the door locks linked with your Smartphone get you rid of keys and enable you to notify about people’s entrance and exit. Even with digital keys, you can grant access to enter your relatives or friends in your home.
In case of Refrigerator, you can easily maintain the stock of food and grocery with your Smartphone linked to your refrigerator. You can check what amount of stock you have and what you require to purchase.
IOT can be helpful for health care system that can check the serious signs of patients and can point out whether the essential assessment is necessary or not. Doctors can alert the patients about their serious condition by evaluating a blood pressure, sugar level.
What Research Says?
Researchers at HP found, nearly 70% of all IOT devices are vulnerable. There are six out of 10 devices found vulnerable and they can be exploited with Cross-site Scripting (XSS), poor session management, and weak credentials.
Daniel Miessler from HP Fortify on Demand said, “The current state of Internet of Things security seems to take all the vulnerabilities from existing spaces, e.g. network security, application security, mobile security, Internet-connected devices, It combine them into a new (even more insecure) space, which is troubling.”
Concerns In IOT:
The main three concerns in IOT are heavy reliance on technology, privacy breach, and loss of jobs. There are few concerns in IOT device technology that is discussed as under.
-
Compatibility
Currently, there is no standard prescribed for companies for classification and monitoring of the device. Before any breach happened on a large scale, manufacturing units have to agree on certain terms, guidelines, and rules for use of the device.
-
Breach
If your IOT device is exploited without your awareness, it can send you a wrong reminder about the related things that can create complexity. Currently, we regularly receive updates regarding application installed in our Smartphone, software need to regarding the latest patches. Therefore, it is an endless game to acquire new updates on our smart devices. Any bug can cause damage to your IOT device. For example, if your printer has a virus inside, and you do not aware about it, your printer can produce fake warnings about a new ink order cartridge every day.
-
Privacy
IOT devices can create privacy issue, for example; your neighbors could know what type of medicines you are taking on daily base. The complected device can transfer information across the other device, which is not owned by you that puts user’s privacy in danger.
-
Safety
Suppose your device is hacked and the hacker has changed the schedule of your medical prescription then it may cause danger to you. IOT device will work as a ripe fruit to get more data of a specific user. It is an alarm that the more breaches are going to happen in the near future due to the wide usage of IOT devices.
Conclusion:
In our growing network world, every user has to keep awareness about their usage of the device otherwise; cyber culprits can take advantage of your confidential data and can ruin your life. Many users still ignore security tips and use their device in their own way that can put them in danger. The new IOT concept has two sides of a coin. On one side, it removes the hassle from our life, whereas it also creates security risks to our privacy and data.
