Promises and Perils of Internet of Technology

Sumit Dadhwal (sumitdadhwal@g.harvard.edu)

Expo-34 Section 6

Exercise 1 - Draft

09/18/2016

Promises And Perils of Internet of Technology

[pic 1] (IANS, 2016)

This essay is a conscious attempt at analyzing issues associated with one of the most promising upcoming technologies in consumer space. The technology is known as “Internet of Things (IoT)“ or simply put IoT. In this essay, I will explain IoT technology and I analyze the security issues associated with IoT. The basis of my essay is a white paper “Security in the Internet of Things” (WindRiver, 2015) published by one of the leading firms in IoT space, Wind River Systems Inc. They are the flag bearers of analyzing and dissecting new technologies. My association with Wind River is purely professional. I worked with them as a technical consultant on a Web Security project early this year. The referenced white paper is a copyright material of Wind River Systems Inc. and its usage is strictly restricted within the scope of this essay. The motivation behind this essay is to reverse engineer or deconstruct the white paper in such a way that the information is easy to digest by a wide variety of non-technical audience. Wherever possible I will try to use examples from real life and draw analogies to explain the context\subject matter in a way easy to understand. So lets start….

What is Internet of Things?

According to wikipedia IoT is “internetworking of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.”

(Wikipedia, 2016)

The above definition from Wikipedia is a bit too technical. If you get it then you can skip to the next para, but for the rest of us let’s take a step back and start from the scratch. As you have notice the phrase “Internet Of Things” is made of two main words, Internet and Things. Let me explain the meaning of these two words. First, what is Internet? Most of us know that Internet is an electronic medium humans use to collaborate, share and distribute useful information with other humans within the context of our modern society. We are able to utilize the Internet because of the simple fact that human beings are smart enough to understand and consume the technical norms associated with any new technology\discovery. Second, What is a Thing? Things or devices are nothing but the gadgets, tools, machines we use in our every day-to-day life. They can be as simple as your home thermostat, kitchen fridge, TV or as complex as your car, watch, phones. These devices are non-living hardware things. They are dumb in a sense that they cannot talk to each other or exchange information in response to any external event without human intervention. Now IoT is a technology, which enables these very dumb devices to communicate with each other without human intervention. With IoT, these devices became smart enough that they can talk to each other using Internet as the communication medium. Sound exciting? Isn’t it?

But you might say, “Why would a device want to talk to another device?”

Let’s take a look at few examples to understand this well:

Smart Home: Homes with smart thermostat can gather/provide information about open/closed doors/windows, about current temperature inside and outside, what the weather is like in the local micro-climate, and whether it is currently occupied (by humans or pets), and if so, what rooms are in use (and likely to be in use in the next period).  In case of any break-ins, local police will be notified automatically. Smart light bulbs can automatically control the amount of light based on the natural light in the room. Smart Fridges can let you see inside the fridges without opening the fridge door. They can also send a text on your smart home if you are running low on supplies.

Smart Car: Cars with IoT can report the accidents directly to your local police or your insurance company. While on road they can collect information about their surrounding vehicles and adjust their own behavior.

Like wise there are many other devices, which when enabled by IoT can perform certain functions on their own. In the modern world, we are already using IoT enabled devices such as smart phones and smart watches. I personally use my smart phone to track the steps I walk daily. At the end of the week I get a report in my email listing my weekly performance.

[pic 2][pic 3] (Communications, 2014)

Now with IoT technology, the devices are programmed (enabled) to do the functions on their own. This saves us time to do more important things. So why not go to the market and fill our houses with IoT devices and wire them to the home Internet. Hold on dear, there is a catch. Every new technology comes with both advantages and disadvantages. And as per the history the disadvantages often weigh more than advantages in the initial years of the technology. [Insert link here]. While IoT technology certainly has the potential to save a lot of time, it also has its fair share of security issues. Next I am going to discuss the potential security issues with IoT technology.

Security Issues with IoT:

The one major issue with IoT technology is that the device you programmed to do its function can be reprogrammed without your knowledge to malfunction or worse to steal your personal information such as network credentials, mail accounts, credit cards info, and worse financial accounts details. You may ask how can anyone reprogram my devices without my knowledge or without my network userid\password? Guess what, most of the IoT devices such as light bulbs, thermostats lacks the ability to encrypt the information they exchange on your home internet. All one need is a laptop with couple of hacking softwares such as wireshark to snoop this communication and steal or alter the information for their own purpose. Now you may counter argue that we never had this kind of security issue with our smart phones or smart watches although the smart phones are in use from the last 5-7 years. To answer this question, we have to relook at IoT definition: