By Guest Writer - Brigitte Lewis
By Guest Writer - Brigitte Lewis
From space, to transport, to the design
of cities, IoT is the latest acronym to sweep the cyber landscape.
IoT is short for Internet of Things and was
coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999. IoT is any device, be it your phone, laptop or
Raspberry Pi
that is connected to the internet. And so these devices come to be known as
'things', especially as more things like light globes, fridges, watches, TVs and vending machines are internet
enabled.
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Depending on your position, this is either great for business or
terrible for the human proclivity towards laziness because who wouldn't want to
turn their lights off from the comfort of bed right?
Business and government are particularly
keen on the Internet of Things and what it can potentially do in terms of
increased productivity, efficiency and citizen engagement. But the take home
from many of the sessions at Melbourne's recent IoT
Festival was that many people have no idea what IoT is
or how it can impact them in positive ways.
Traffic lights that are IoT enabled can
send data back to traffic controllers (both real life and digital) who can then
increase or decrease stopping signals depending on traffic flow and therefore
make our roads less congested and more efficient. Goodbye bumper to bumper (I
can dream).
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A water company in South Korea was
fitted out with IoT devices by local Mount Waverly team Freestyle
Technology. What this meant from a social good
perspective is that when their devices that were fitted to local houses
detected zero water usage, a social worker was then called out to check whether
the resident was in distress. This is in addition to the usual ways you could
imagine IoT and smart water working. These range from detecting leaks with much greater speed,
creating alerts if there are failures along the pipeline, tracking worker
locations to minimising down time because the whole system is delivered in
real-time and able to visualised and understood remotely.
Japanese smoking rooms are also a great
example of IoT enabled things. The devices in these rooms can detect how many people are in
the room and increase or decrease the ventilation required which resulted in a
30% increase in energy savings for companies who use them.
Gelato companies have partnered with
uber so their clients can literally track how far away their sugar hit is.
Farmers have taken up the call with water monitors that are IoT enabled. These
devices send famers a message if their livestock's water is low and save them
from dehydration and potential loss of income from sick animals. Coca-cola
envision a day in the not too distant future where drones drop off coke via
your GPS location so you could be sipping coke while you wait for your pizza
delivery in the park on a Sunday arvo, which is already has IoT written all
over it.
In Queensland the government developed
an open data policy and provided an app called Breathe Easy which measures air
pollution & water quality so residents can decide where they'd like to live
based on environmental concerns.
The word on the street is that people
are hungry for tech and IoT enables devices are the latest way to get satiated.
But with all the data being collected already and an estimated 75 billion
devices predicted to be online by 2020, the kinds of data being
collected is also crucial so we don't end up with systems and languages and
devices that don't talk back to one another.
Standardisation is key when thinking
about where to from here as are guidelines around the security of IoT devices
from the code used to create the interface to the person or people on the other
end. Many of the security issues that we already face with devices such as our
laptops and phones are exactly the same. From insecure code, users with
insecure passwords and people all along the supply-chain without sufficient
knowledge of what it is to be secure and what it all means on a day-to-day way
when you engage in risky behaviour. The answer as always is education.
Another key take home from the
conference, is how important the ability to tell stories is. Being able to
communicate how and why the IoT can be useful to businesses and communities is
the first step in bringing audiences outside of already informed IT spaces on
board. And it's the sounding board for great innovation and diversity when it
comes to new ways to address societal and business related issues. STEAM or
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths majors will come into their
own in this space and are why there are ever louder calls for people with
communications skills to enter the IT industry.
There are no current accepted standards
when it comes to the IoT. What there is, however, are Australian guidelines which outline the
importance of embedding security in IoT devices and therefore code from the
ground up, rather than as an afterthought which is often the case. Data
security is also crucial, especially with the recent global attacks and the
proliferation of highly sensitive data connected to IoT devices like health
records. Additionally, monitoring of devices is important to enable
vulnerabilities are identified before they become a beacon for hackers and of
course, ongoing compliance and risk assessment as landscapes, software, users
and hacks change and evolve, often on a daily basis.
IoT is here and chances are, you're already a node in the network.
Bio
Brigitte attended the IoT Festival on behalf of the organisers. She's a
writer and sociologist turned cyber security researcher with a fervour for
exploring the ways the digital can create social change. You can read her
latest article on the rise of feminist lead hashtags on Twitter here.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, organisation or association.
