“Hey Alexa! What’s on the calendar today?” If you haven’t said something similar to this yourself, chances are you’ve heard it in an advertisement more times than you can count. The Internet of Things (IoT) has rapidly expanded into almost everyone’s lives — so what is it, and should we be concerned?
What are devices that are a part of the IoT? 🤔
Do you have a smartwatch? Google Home? If so, then you have one!
Any device that is connected to the internet, but not typically expected to, is a part of the IoT. These devices often communicate with each other over wifi, Bluetooth, or LTE to create a more connected world, and gather information to help someone with a task. For example, Amazon Echo makes it easy to search facts, check your calendar, and listen to music hands-free. If your car had access to your calendar, it could help you plan your route to maximize efficiency without any additional input from you! Even something like a pill can be connected to the IoT.
As for industrial applications, the IoT can create more responsive and contextualized interactions. Sensors can increase efficiency, such as a device that can provide information on the quality of a material.
In smart cities, the IoT can connect data to better understand what is happening and allow city planners to make better decisions. AT&T wants to monitor infrastructures such as bridges with LTE-enabled sensors to keep track of structural changes such as cracks and tilts.
The data collected from these devices is transmitted wirelessly or on wired networks from the device to a gathering point, such as a data center or the cloud. There can also be intermediary devices that aggregate this data. Edge-computing can be used to reduce delay, which is where an edge device can aggregate, analyze, and create responses to data within close distance of the source.
The global market for IoT is big, with the IDC predicting that there will be 41.6 billion IoT devices by 2025. The expansion of the prevalence of the IoT has been helped by the adoption of RFID tags and IPv6. RFID tags are inexpensive chips that can wirelessly communicate to track location, while IPv6 provides IP addresses.
Privacy Concerns 🛑
Samsung has said that securing IoT devices is critical, and a Chinese firm has recalled 4.3 million connected cameras. Why could this be?
Since IoT devices have access to personal information, even often asking the user to input their address or phone number, they present real privacy concerns. The data could be used for monitoring, location tracking, or other malicious intents. In the IoT world, many devices are connected, so hackers can easily gain access to the entire network.
To try to combat this, make sure you purchase devices that use encryption. Using devices that don’t encrypt their data means anyone can extract your information! Using a VPN will also encrypt the data. Additionally, some IoT devices aren’t updated enough to appropriately patch security issues, especially if a company goes out of business. Buying from more established brands means faster response times and updates.
Home hub devices like Amazon Alexa constantly listen for the trigger word, such as “Hey Alexa.” This can result in privacy issues — even if Alexa is not always recording information, if it accidentally hears the activation word, operators can receive voice logs. The only solution to this is to not purchase these devices… but then you lose all the convenience they bring.
Self-Defending Networks 🦠
In the past years, hackers have been able to utilize increasingly sophisticated tools like machine learning and artificial intelligence to infiltrate systems. In many cases, traditional security systems aren’t able to keep up with their speed. One way to increase security is the use of self-defending networks.
Think about systems like our immune system or even first responders. They are constantly alert of attacks or emergencies and deal with these challenges daily. Self-defending networks would act similarly. This approach is able to discover and spot threats that have penetrated networks and then, as the name implies, automatically fight back.
IBM describes self-management attributes in four parts: self-configuration, self-healing, self-optimizing and self-protection.
- Self-Configuration: Adapt to changes in the environment, based on policies provided by the IT professional
- Self-Healing: Detect, diagnose, and repair problems resulting from bugs or failures without disrupting the environment
- Self-Optimization: Monitor and adjust resources automatically to meet needs and improve performance
- Self-Protection: Anticipate, prevent, and defend against security breaches
You can think of this in contrast to other more traditional approaches that rely on signatures, which are a set of rules that intrusion detection or prevention systems use to detect this intrusion — self-defending networks use math and machine learning to work autonomously against even the fastest attackers. Rather than defining what is “bad,” the system is alerted to changes in patterns.
The Dendritic Cell Algorithm is a population-based algorithm that can combine multiple data streams and adds context to anomalous data. If the Mature Context Antigen Value is greater than a threshold, the algorithm detects the presence of an intruder. The MCAV value is calculated by M / (SM + M), where M is the number of mature DCs (potentially anomalous data items) and SM is the number of semi-mature DCs (data collected under normal conditions.) The closer the MCAV value is to 1, the greater the probability that the data is anomalous.
Key Takeaways
- The IoT is comprised of a network of connected devices that receive data
- IoT has the potential to be integrated into almost every aspect of our lives
- Many privacy concerns exist, but there are a number of ways devices can be made safer, including the implementation of self-defending networks
What do you think about IoT? Let me know in the comments, and connect with me on LinkedIn or email angela.ming.hu@gmail.com!
