AreWePreparedForIoT
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The document discusses the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the security concerns that come with connecting everyday devices to the internet. It notes that while IoT promises to make life more convenient by allowing refrigerators, lights, shoes and other objects to communicate with each other, it also creates new security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers. The document cites the example of the Stuxnet computer virus that damaged Iranian nuclear centrifuges. It warns that as more devices connect to the internet, they will generate large amounts of sensitive data and become potential entry points for attacks that might compromise people's privacy, safety and property if not properly secured.
AreWePreparedForIoT
- 1. The day is not far when virtually all the electronic devices from phone to cars from refrigerators to light switches will be connected to internet and will create a huge network of communication to make our life easier. But are we really prepared for this? Are we prepared for IoT? Rathoud, Sameer
- 2. If futurists are right, we are going to enter in an era where all the physical objects we interact with on our daily basis, will gather the data through sensors, connect to internet and communicate with each other through the buzzword and sci-fi movie worth concept Internet of Things (IoT). Optimist believes soon these daily usable object will become intelligent and will make our life easy. Tomorrow a refrigerator may suggest you a recipe by looking at the content in it. A light may get dim when you are feeling sleepy. Your shoes may monitor your health and suggest how much calorie you should burn or even may be your shoes will tell, how much calorie your friend has burned. Your dress will monitor your health. Our highways will be safer. Our house will be more efficient. And may be every single idea will become true with IoT tomorrow. With IoT the devices will be connected to various sensors. Through these sensors they collect lot of data, analyze these data and provide suggestion or take some action based on the conclusion of data analysis. But there might be the chances that the data captured by these intelligent devices or data flowing across the internet are highly sensitive and private and by considering privacy and security as stand these devices provide a highly vulnerable point to hackers. Instead of making our life easy as supposed to be by these IoT devices, it can create security havoc. Few years back an incident came in notice, where a malware worm named “Stuxnet”, which was designed to attack industrial programmable logic controller (PLC). PLCs allow the automation of electromechanical processes such as those used to control machinery on factory assembly lines, amusement rides, or centrifuges for separating nuclear material. Exploiting four zero-day flaws, Stuxnet functions by targeting machines using the Microsoft Windows operating system and networks, then seeking out Siemens Step7 software. Stuxnet reportedly compromised Iranian PLCs, collecting information on industrial systems and causing the fast-spinning centrifuges to tear themselves apart. Stuxnet’s design and architecture are not domain-specific and it could be tailored as a
- 3. platform for attacking modern SCADA and PLC systems. Stuxnet reportedly ruined almost one-fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges. You can find more information on stuxnet at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet. Although this example is not directly portraying the vulnerability of IoT data. But with this example we can imagine how badly a malware can hurt any program. Take another example where an intelligent cooking range is supposed to do some basic pre-processing before I reach home. And a malware in my intelligent device can even influence my house’s fire safety and can burn my house. We can anticipate an attack of the things, when new connected devices cause problems on networks in a variety of ways including increasing network attack surface (every new "thing" is a potential hackable weak point), using up precious bandwidth, generating mountains of sensitive data that needs to be stored and secured, and usable IP addresses as billions of new things connect to networks worldwide. Capturing the data from our intelligent device’s sensors will be ok, until I am not providing the intelligence to the controllers as well or our data security system for these IoT devices should be sound enough that I can rely on the actions of my controller as well. May be tomorrow I will be flooded with suggestions from my IoT devices, but preferably I would like to own the actions rather than these intelligent devices do it for me (at least for now). I don’t want to be very pessimist and we can choose to ignore the impending onslaught of ubiquitous connected devices. While this might be OK for now, we can’t keep our head in the sand for much longer by just thinking of a TRAP!