April 10, 2018 at 9:05 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item IoT Success
April 11, 2018 at 2:07 am
I'm ignorant of IoT beyond two of my senior managers raving about that kind of thing for a while last year (both have sadly moved on to other companies), but this paragraph caught my interest (emphasis mine):
| There are certainly still potential security problems with off the shelf sensors and grid connections. Anyone that wants to start to use these types of devices needs to understand the networking and potentially limit access to your main databases and systems, perhaps with tightly controlled ETL processes to funnel the data to staging areas. If you can do that, however, there are going to be opportunities to increase the efficiency of your operations, with plenty of data analysis and visualization jobs for the data professionals. |
Beyond the risk of IoT devices presenting possible gateways into your central systems for intruders, is hacking the device itself and simply having it record the wrong data not also a risk? Or is that not possible for some reason?
Say I'm a competitor to your industrial shrimp farmer over there who's using IoT devices to monitor his stock and, I don't know, maybe adjust temperature based on data provided by the devices, or close and open gates automatically to send out only the nice fat shrimp for harvesting (apologies if I've misunderstood the details of shrimp farming here)? If IoT devices are easily hackable, surely I don't need to bring his system down with malware to destabilize his business: I can just have the devices tell him the wrong things. That the temperature in zone 3 is way too high, say, or that the shrimp behind gate 2 are ready for harvesting when they're not, or that everything's normal when it's not.
Small stuff, maybe, but people make big decisions based on the intricacies of the data they access about their business. I would have guessed that messing with the data itself would be as much of a concern as simply firewalling off the devices so only the data they send can get through.
April 11, 2018 at 4:37 am
We bought a new washing machine and it wanted me to connect it to the Internet to register it. First I thought no, then I thought lets see how this would work.. after 20 minutes of not understanding how to connect it I though, why would I even want to do that to begin with. Its a washing machine. It stated that it sends data back to the company to analyze how we use the washer and if it has an issue they can read codes from it. I simply got the model and serial number and got my old fashioned PC fired up and registered it that way.
April 11, 2018 at 4:46 am
AlistairH - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 2:07 AMI'm ignorant of IoT beyond two of my senior managers raving about that kind of thing for a while last year (both have sadly moved on to other companies), but this paragraph caught my interest (emphasis mine):
There are certainly still potential security problems with off the shelf sensors and grid connections. Anyone that wants to start to use these types of devices needs to understand the networking and potentially limit access to your main databases and systems, perhaps with tightly controlled ETL processes to funnel the data to staging areas. If you can do that, however, there are going to be opportunities to increase the efficiency of your operations, with plenty of data analysis and visualization jobs for the data professionals.
Beyond the risk of IoT devices presenting possible gateways into your central systems for intruders, is hacking the device itself and simply having it record the wrong data not also a risk? Or is that not possible for some reason?
Say I'm a competitor to your industrial shrimp farmer over there who's using IoT devices to monitor his stock and, I don't know, maybe adjust temperature based on data provided by the devices, or close and open gates automatically to send out only the nice fat shrimp for harvesting (apologies if I've misunderstood the details of shrimp farming here)? If IoT devices are easily hackable, surely I don't need to bring his system down with malware to destabilize his business: I can just have the devices tell him the wrong things. That the temperature in zone 3 is way too high, say, or that the shrimp behind gate 2 are ready for harvesting when they're not, or that everything's normal when it's not.
Small stuff, maybe, but people make big decisions based on the intricacies of the data they access about their business. I would have guessed that messing with the data itself would be as much of a concern as simply firewalling off the devices so only the data they send can get through.
You wouldn't need to go as far as Sabotaging his production - just knowing how much he is producing and what his costs are (how much energy is he using for temperature control, is the heat/Power source renewable and thus low cost) could be very useful in undercutting his price to the wholesaler and gaining his business
April 11, 2018 at 5:45 am
AlistairH - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 2:07 AM
You wouldn't need to go as far as Sabotaging his production - just knowing how much he is producing and what his costs are (how much energy is he using for temperature control, is the heat/Power source renewable and thus low cost) could be very useful in undercutting his price to the wholesaler and gaining his business
Farmers have formed co-ops for decades. This is an extension of that, and would benefit from that type of organizational structure.
412-977-3526 call/text
April 11, 2018 at 6:01 am
AlistairH - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 2:07 AMI'm ignorant of IoT beyond two of my senior managers raving about that kind of thing for a while last year (both have sadly moved on to other companies), but this paragraph caught my interest (emphasis mine):
There are certainly still potential security problems with off the shelf sensors and grid connections. Anyone that wants to start to use these types of devices needs to understand the networking and potentially limit access to your main databases and systems, perhaps with tightly controlled ETL processes to funnel the data to staging areas. If you can do that, however, there are going to be opportunities to increase the efficiency of your operations, with plenty of data analysis and visualization jobs for the data professionals.
Beyond the risk of IoT devices presenting possible gateways into your central systems for intruders, is hacking the device itself and simply having it record the wrong data not also a risk? Or is that not possible for some reason?
Say I'm a competitor to your industrial shrimp farmer over there who's using IoT devices to monitor his stock and, I don't know, maybe adjust temperature based on data provided by the devices, or close and open gates automatically to send out only the nice fat shrimp for harvesting (apologies if I've misunderstood the details of shrimp farming here)? If IoT devices are easily hackable, surely I don't need to bring his system down with malware to destabilize his business: I can just have the devices tell him the wrong things. That the temperature in zone 3 is way too high, say, or that the shrimp behind gate 2 are ready for harvesting when they're not, or that everything's normal when it's not.
Small stuff, maybe, but people make big decisions based on the intricacies of the data they access about their business. I would have guessed that messing with the data itself would be as much of a concern as simply firewalling off the devices so only the data they send can get through.
Currently the "security" of IoT devices, in general, is laughable. Witness the Mirai botnet last year, which used IoT security cameras to generate a massive DDOS attack. So your idea of someone hacking into an IoT system to generating false data, or altering the functioning of a system, is not too far-fetched. The problem being, the solution requires the IoT device manufacturers to take security into account, to provide updates for their devices (at least for security issues,) and the end-user to be aware of these problems and take their own steps to guard against being hacked.
In the case of the shrimp farming (didn't read the source article,) having multiple sensors from different vendors, while more work to set up, would also make a hackers life a little more difficult. In the case of more important installations (say, IoT systems to monitor the power grid?) the end-users really, really need to ensure that those devices are both secure and on a secured network. Largely, it comes down to the "pick any two of these things: security, ease-of-use, cost" sort of decision. Your average home user? Cost and ease-of-use. Your power grid company *should* pick security as one of their two things, but business (and government) are always looking to keep costs down, which often means they'll try to get all three and end up with none...
April 11, 2018 at 6:22 am
I want to be the DBA for the shrimp farm. 'Smell those shrimp they're beginnin' to boil'.
April 11, 2018 at 6:23 am
There is a great deal of benefits from an operational and optimization standpoint for sure. I went to a tech conference last month where someone gave a presentation on their IoT device to replace legacy systems that help optimize and streamline data in the real world for parking and etc. Saved the company a lot of money and allowed them to be more efficient.
On the marketing side of things, there is certainly a lot of new tech on the break of coming out that will certainly be game changers. Like this whole paper-like LCD screens that allow you to have fully interactive and connected maps to possibly even turning cereal boxes into billboards on shelves (likely won't happen till these are safer and biodegradable). Google even has fabric now that you can sew into clothes that may connect your shirt, pants and underwear to whatever.
Unfortunately, there is also a great deal of trash out there you don't need connected.
April 11, 2018 at 8:34 am
Internet Of Things, just like Social Media, is a powerful tool. It can be leveraged to create some really great applications, but if not used judiciously it also has some really stupid applications as well. For example, it's stories like this that make me ask: WHY???
https://www.hackread.com/internet-connected-sex-toys-can-be-hacked/
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
April 11, 2018 at 9:05 am
AlistairH - Wednesday, April 11, 2018 2:07 AM...
Small stuff, maybe, but people make big decisions based on the intricacies of the data they access about their business. I would have guessed that messing with the data itself would be as much of a concern as simply firewalling off the devices so only the data they send can get through.
Absolutely. I didn't discuss potential data quality, but that's a concern for sure. Someone could hack some devices. Some are sensors, and might not be programmable in that way, but others might be. I'd like to think that lots of devices require physical access, but I wouldn't count on it.
April 11, 2018 at 10:09 pm
I am not sure where IOT will end up. I think the convenience offered currently is trivial to the privacy violations and unnecessary overhead of such systems.
April 12, 2018 at 6:52 am
Here is my analogy: IoT is to the consumer appliance industry what GMO is to the farming industry. It primarily helps the producer capitalize on their product, while it offers superficial if no benefit to the consumer or retailer. Actually, IoT is even worse than GMO, because far from being mostly a philosophical debate, there have been numerous documented cases where IoT rendered the product less useful at a higher price or even caused actual real risk and harm to consumers. The widespread and unregulated proliferation of IoT in the public domain threatens our personal privacy, health, infrastructure, and national security. For evidence, simply Google the word IoT in conjunction with any of the previously mentioned.
Here is my prediction: At some point in the near future, consumers will look for the "Non-IoT" logo on appliances the same way they look for "Non-GMO" and "USDA Organic" when shopping for groceries.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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