Not sure i want the Internet of Everything

I not so sure i want the Internet of Everything!!

While the idea of having more things in our life be available to the internet is cool.  It allows things to be interconnected and brings an intelligence and ability to automate things in a way that was only seen in “visions of the future”.  Even just 10 years ago the idea of being able to automate things, even at home, was something that was available to only the very rich and involved such elaborate and complicated setups that you needed very expensive equipment and people to get it working.  Now Lowes sells a DIY kit to do home automation.  Heck, there are refrigerators that have internet access!!

Now the “home market” isn’t really the biggest push for the Internet of Everything.  The big money is in your large companies and utilities.  One of the biggest pushes is your utility providers to create a “Smart Grid”.  Being able to provide better intelligence and automation to the power grid, water supplies, even traffic control devices is something that is desired.  I’ve done projects for some large utilities that are doing exactly that.  Putting smart meters in that have internet connectivity baked in.  Traffic lights that can communicate with each other about traffic patterns and adjust automatically already exist in many areas.

However, lets be totally honest here, there is a reason that “password” is typically in the top 5 of passwords in the world.  People either don’t fully understand or are lazy about security.  My biggest fear is that various manufactures, esp ones trying to cut costs are going to want to jump on the bandwagon of “automation” and “connected devices” and forget about securing them.  Now i’m not of the tin-foil hat variety, but lets be honest there have been a lot of high-profile security breaches lately.  Now for every Target and Adobe there are 10,000’s of smaller breaches.  These range from simple causing havoc, to major theft of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and money.  Now imagine the wrong people getting into the “Smart-Grids”, and causing really really big problems.

As much as a tech geek i am, i think i’ll wait a while before i start to get too nuts with my own entrance into the Internet of Everything.

 

 

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