With the dawn of the 20thcentury, a new idea sparked in the tech world to connect every single day to day appliances to the internet, to make them communicate, share data with each other, and by using that data for making our life easier but as good as it sounds, in theory, there are many challenges in making it work the two biggest among them being the technology gap between the different appliances and security. Now we are reaching the time where most of our devices are getting connected to the internet for example smart TVs, fridges, cars, etc. The problem of the technology gap is on the verge of solving but the second and the important issue being the security is still a major issue because in networking any type of connection is vulnerable to a variety of attacks major one being a man in the middle(MITM) and wireless communication is the one that is getting used most in the Internet of Things (IoT) which is more vulnerable to snooping. The number of devices in the individual network in the Internet of Things (IoT) is so high which also doesn’t help in security due to different technologies and protocols being used in different devices. This also creates compatibility issues but that is a minor one comparing to the others. Solving all of the above-mentioned issues gives us a new technology that can give a push to the automation industry.
Imagine walking out of the house without even thinking about turning off the gas, lights, etc. Imagine getting alerts from the fridge about the items that are low on inventory whenever you are in the supermarket or getting your car out of the parking and in front of the house whenever you are going to the office. All of this is a minor part of implementing the Internet of Things (IoT). This technology can revolutionize the way we will accomplish our everyday tasks, it can save a tremendous amount of time and will improve the way we will live. It will affect every part of our life.
That is all in the future (actually near future) but in the present, we are also implementing some aspects of IoT for instance wearable tech and smart homes are becoming a major hit in IoT. We are tracking our Heart rate, Steps count, Blood pressure using smart wearables, and using the collected information to improve our health. The smart homes are automating all the menial repeating tasks like flushing, turning off the appliances, ordering everyday items and so much more. This technology will get better with use if used with machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict our actions and making the environment susceptible to those actions and changes.
The IoT systems are combinations of hardware and software. Most of the hardware comprises of the sensors and the software platforms that are mainly used for the development and coding of IoT devices are ARM mbed and Bosch IoT Suite. ARM mbed is a tool that gives you a platform to write software on the hardware and gives you the facility to connect that device to the cloud through which we can implement IoT. The ARM also gives you inbuilt security features like the device’s secure itself from untrusted and malicious code. The Bosch IoT suite also gives you the same functions as the ARM with some extra inclusions like the use of open standard and open source code and is mainly used to develop cross-platform systems. Evothings studio and Netvibes are the other major platforms that are used to create Internet of Things (IoT) systems.
But all this accessibility comes at a price which is the danger of breach of privacy as the more we get into the web of the Internet of Things (IoT) the more information about ourselves we put on the network so if a privacy breach occurs it will be more drastic than your run of the mill privacy breach cause of the mass amount of our information that will get exposed like our everyday patterns our routines our financial credentials and so on.
So, the question arises whether this is some game-changing technology or a simple hype box. According to my opinion if this technology gets matured and applied correctly it will change the way we live but if left with any security loopholes this can turn into the biggest information collecting machine for the bad guys.
