Despite the great concern about cyberattacks and privacy violations, most experts believe that the Internet of Things will continue to expand successfully in the coming years, linking machines to machines and linking people to valuable resources, services and opportunities.
Today, 49% of the world’s population is online and an estimated 8.4 billion connected devices are used worldwide.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is booming. The growing collection of connected devices goes largely unnoticed by the public, such as sensors, actuators and other elements that complete the tasks behind them in the day-to-day operations of businesses and the government, most of them helped by machine-to-machine computing, i.e. Artificial Intelligence.
Safety concern
But this same IoT connection is open to security vulnerabilities, each connected device is susceptible to attack or misuse. In September 2016 at DEF CON, one of the world’s largest security conferences, 47 vulnerabilities were revealed affecting 23 IoT-enabled devices (door locks, wheelchairs, thermostats and more) from 21 different manufacturers .
All of this has created a concern among Internet security experts, including Bruce Schneier who said, “I think we’re getting to the top of computerization and connectivity, and in a few years we’re going to decide what to connect and what to disconnect and we’re going to be more realistic about what can work. We are creating a society through which a totalitarian government can control everything. And we live in a computerized world where attacks are easier to create than defenses against them. This is coming faster than we think. We need to address it now. People have so far been able to code the world as they please, and that has to change. We have to make moral, ethical, and political decisions about how these things should work and then put that in our code. Politicians and technologists continue to talk to each other. This has to change. “
Just as billions of everyday objects are connected to the Internet of Things and are sending and receiving data that improves local, national, and global systems, and people’s lives, this connection also creates exploitable vulnerabilities.
Like cars, medical devices, televisions, manufacturing equipment, and other tools and infrastructure are connected to the network, are concerns of attacks, hacks, or ransomware likely to cause a number of people decide to disconnect, or is it possible that this trend towards greater connectivity will continue to grow?
Connecting is inevitable
Research from the Pew Research Center and Elon University has answered this question, and only 15% of the respondents in this report said that a significant number of people may decide to disconnect, while 85% he felt that people are probably unaffected by this and become more and more connected, mainly due to the experts surveyed, that humans crave connectivity, and will look for more of it because of their convenience and out of necessity, as they will be increasingly integrated into more things.
Ian O’Byrne, an assistant literacy professor at the College of Charleston, said: “More and more people will connect because device manufacturers will make it much easier and more accessible to purchase and use these devices. Just as we have added electricity to every possible device with advances in technology, manufacturers will “add the Internet” to all devices in an attempt to make them better, but also possibly to sell more products. In short, more people and more devices will be connected.”
On the other hand, the Pew Research Center study saw that a portion of respondents expressed a low level of confidence that IoT or network security will go a long way over the next decade. Those whose responses generally referred to consumer-oriented applications, such as “smart home” articles, were found to be less concerned about one’s privacy or security, with such devices.
Nor did they think that IoT absorption will live up to expectations, and generally did not consider the use of IoT in larger systems such as transportation, environmental services, and finance.
Growth in the global IoT platform market
The global IoT platform market was valued at $420 million in 2016 and Technavio’s latest report is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 32% by 2021.
The increase in the number of interconnected smart devices such as PCs, laptops, PDAs, tablets, smartphones and sensors integrated into everyday consumer and physical activity devices is driving market growth. In addition, advances in technology have resulted in low-cost, compact and energy-efficient sensors and communication devices.
Sunil Kumar Singh, leading analyst at Technavio, specializing in systems research says: “The global market for IoT platforms is growing at a significant pace. Growth stems from the growing demand for digital transformations from traditional industries that seek to gain a competitive advantage in their respective markets.”
The dangers are real
Many of those who responded to the Pew Research Center survey said the dangers of IoT are real and pose a huge challenge. They are confident that in the future there will be more attacks with more devastating results, as billions of things and people will be online and systems become more complex and difficult to manage.
Defects and vulnerabilities are a natural part of the rapid evolution of networks, and software and hardware and security responses are always one step behind.
Many are quite concerned about data protection in a world where it is continuously collected and stored, especially given the fact that the “threat environment” created by this network is high.
While some experts believe that living an IoT-dependent life will be frightening at times, and often frustrating, most believe that this will not be enough to deter people from diving deeper into connectivity.
Regardless, IoT will be accepted
Many of these respondents said optimism bias drives people to perceive potential risk as something that is unlikely to harm them. When they ask themselves, “if the benefits outweigh the risks,” the answer is usually yes.
Especially when connection and comfort are the result of being hyperconnected. Most respondents in the Pew Research Center study predicted that people in general expect that any issues linked to their connection will depend primarily on others, not themselves.
An anonymous computer software sales engineer said that” most people are unaware of the complexities of online security and assume that will happen to someone else.”
Daniel Berleant, author of “The Human Race to the Future,” said that, “every change comes with risks. You don’t see people driving away from cars (with occasional individual exceptions) because cars are dangerous. The dangers of using digital technologies are lower than those of automobiles and while these dangers are a constant concern, they will not stop the overall trend of digitization.”
60% of IoT initiatives remain on the testing phase
But despite the momentum of IoT, according to a new Cisco study, 60% of IoT initiatives and projects remain in the proof-of-concept (PoC) phase, and only 26% companies have had an IoT initiative that they consider to be a success mpleto. That is, one third of completed projects are not considered successful.
The human factor such as culture, organization and leadership are critical to the good outcome of these projects. In fact, three out of four key factors for IoT success are related to people and their work, as the Cisco study shows, these factors are primarily:
- The collaboration between the IT department and the lines of business, rated as a success factor by the 54% of the respondents.
- A technological culture, promoted from team managers to the board of directors and considered a key factor by the 49%.
- The experience in IoT, both internal and through agreements with external experts, identified as decisive by the 48%.
The study indicates that organizations most successful in IoT initiatives relied on the partner ecosystem at every stage of the project, ranging from strategic planning to reporting and results after production.
73% of respondents are using data from already completed IoT projects to optimize their business. The three main benefits cited are: increased customer satisfaction (70%), operational improvements (67%) and higher quality of products or services (66% ). In addition, the highest return is the main unexpected profit (39%).
