The Internet of Things (IoT). Now, there’s a phrase that’s getting a lot of people pretty excited at the moment. I have to admit that I’ve been trying not to get carried along on the tidal wave of expectation that accompanies those four words and, to a large extent, I’ve succeeded.
But during a conversation with someone for something else, I found my interest piqued by a fascinating (and possibly unnoticed) contradiction at the heart of the whole IoT phenomenon. And it’s all to do with our enthusiasm for making things smart.
Phones, TVs, fridges, light bulbs, so many things that once were dumb, now are smart. Being smart is a good thing, though, isn’t it? Well…
Invariably, making something smart means it becomes a part of the Internet of Things. That’s not a bad thing in and of itself. But there are some issues that most people may be unaware of that could cause quite serious ructions to their normal everyday existence.
Smart devices connected to the IoT are communicating with other devices and networks that we have little, if any, visibility of. They might be phoning home for updates or sending information that can be used to provide a more tailored experience for us as users. But the point is that we’re oblivious to much of this activity.
None of that is especially harmful, as such, but it could be. Because just as easily as our phones or TVs or fridges or light bulbs are communicating with their home worlds, they could be communicating with more nefarious sources intent on doing harm to our environment. Admittedly, the prospect of someone remotely taking over your fridge might not fill you with fear but it’s still opening up a potential source of disruption that wasn’t there before.
Risk
Also, if these smart devices are part of someone’s existing home network, they can bring a new security threat to the home that wasn’t there before. And who would think to look in the fridge to find the source of their home network security breach?
Essentially, we have yet another example here of how the advancement of technology can also create new security threats and issues that wouldn’t exist without it. Many of these could turn out to be more mischievous than entirely malicious but no one wants to come home to a fridge that won’t open, a freezer which has turned itself off or light bulbs that flick on and off at someone else’s instruction. Imagine if the scenario people like to present of a fridge telling you to buy more milk on your way home was turned into a practical joke where you were advised to buy something you already had lots of. Admittedly, that’s something I usually do unaided because I normally forget what I have in the fridge but it’s irritating nonetheless.
If your smart devices become compromised, at the very least they make your life unnecessarily complicated and irksome. At the worst, who knows what will happen?
The irony is that we’re heading towards a future where we will end up replacing dumb things we can trust with smart things that we can’t.
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