Internet of Things Applications

Your office knows to turn on the lights when you arrive and turn them off when you leave. Your copier knows when to order more toner. Your car knows the best path to your next client meeting. Your building management system detects who is where and the optimal environmental controls. These Internet of Things (IoT) devices are all great, until someone hacks them and turns them against you. From cars to buildings to medical devices to the infrastructure that supports all of it—as we become more dependent on technology, we become more exposed to those technologies being turned against us.

The revolution of the Internet was the catalyst that changed the future of communication forever. It allows for the transfer of information despite the geological barriers that separate the computers. As time has progressed, we have developed new technologies that have allowed us to move from the First generation of the Internet into the current transition into the Fourth generation. This generation has been propelled by the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT).

We cannot leave Hollywood Sci-Fi movies when we talk about AI and IoT. Billionaire genius Tony Stark created a “shield around the world” to protect humanity from an ever increasing universe of threats. Unfortunately, once Ultron has achieved sentience, he takes his prime directive (to achieve peace in our time) to hyperlogical, human-life-ending conclusions. Coming back to reality Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has revealed that he's increasingly worried about the threat that Internet of Things (IoT) poses to humanity.

"Computers are going to take over from humans," Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak the 64-year-old engineer told the Australian Financial Review. "No question." "People including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have predicted and I agree that the future is scary and very bad for people. If we build these devices to take care of everything for us, eventually they'll think faster than us and they'll get rid of the slow humans to run companies more efficiently." - Woz

The billionaire engineer/inventor and owner of Tesla Motors recently donated $10 Million to the Future of Life Institute, a non-profit group working to “mitigate the existential risks to humanity” inherent in developing A.I and IoT. These aren’t sci-fi fan-groups or fringe thinkers forming these organization. Smart, prominent people are committing their time to this threat.

We know smartphones and smart watches. Our TVs and appliances have gone smart; smartcars are starting to show up on streets. At what point do these machines go from smart to intelligent? And if this intelligence threat is legit, and yet so many scientists are pursuing it, what are the benefits they find that could possibly outweigh such risks?

According to HP's report,"Internet of Things Security: State of the Union", a total of 250 security holes have been found in the tested IoT devices — on average, 25 per device. The issues are related to privacy, insufficient authorization, lack of transport encryption, inadequate software protection, and insecure Web interfaces. The report shows that 80% of the tested devices, including their corresponding cloud and mobile apps, raised privacy concerns regarding the collection of user data such as names, email addresses, physical addresses, date of birth, financial and health information.

When it comes to authorization, many of the products fail to enforce strong passwords, allowing customers to set passwords like "1234" not only on the devices themselves, but also on websites and mobile apps.

Three of the main concerns that accompany the Internet of Things are the breach of privacy, over-reliance on technology, and the loss of jobs. Also, companies could misuse the information that they are given access to. This is a common mishap that occurs within companies all the time. Just recently Google got caught using information that was supposed to be private. Information, such as the data collected and stored by IoT, can be immensely beneficial to companies.

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