If we went back to the start and you had the power to prevent the internet, would you stop it?
My memory was jogged this week to a keynote speech and technology Q&A that I participated in last year. It was part of a “future of technology” session that was run by Tech UK. I was talking about some of the innovation trials I was currently running. These trials were based on IoT, looking at how the use of different sensors could transform aspects of society. The conversation took an interesting turn as within the room was a collection of lawyers. For the next 30 minutes we discussed the importance of security, in this new sensory world. The debate bounced back and forth as every positive was countered with a negative. Activity sensors that may be used to help dementia sufferers stay in their home longer, but risk being hacked giving someone knowledge of where vulnerable people reside. A great example of technology fixing one problem, but creating another.
I was asked a question from the floor whether IoT plans should be scaled down until security could be tightened. My answer was suitably vague but IoT can bring huge advances and already has in many industries, but it should be remembered, security is an important consideration when deploying any solution. I then threw a question back to the floor, “knowing all of the bad and good things that come with the Internet, if we went back to the start and you had the power to prevent its invention, would you stop it?”
The answer is almost definitely no, so why not look at IoT the same way? But this time knowing some of the risks up front - this must be an advantage! The reason this debate popped back into my head was due to a recent article that I read called - “Internet-Connected Teddy Bear leaks 2 million voice recordings of parents and children”
As more government funding becomes available for new technology initiatives like IoT and big data, the security wrap around them will be under the microscope again.
So, the questions that I would like to ask the LinkedIn community are;
1) Would the world be a better place without the Internet?
2) Would the world be a better place without IoT?
3) What do you call a collection of Lawyers?
Eat, Sleep, Innovate, Repeat
All the best
Che
Thinkfortytwo
Strengths based coaching for individuals and organisations.
7 年Hi Che, Fab article and I'm loving the questions (especially the final one!) and congratulations on the new venture. My answers would be: 1) We can't change or take back what has already come to pass, instead we use lessons learnt to create the future we want to be a part of. 2) My view is that the world will be a better place when resistance to learning about IoT is reduced, lessons from the introduction of the internet are used to recognise potential issues with a view to mitigating them, resulting in the overall benefits of IoT being more readily identified. 3) ... I'll get back to you but thanks for making me think.
Hey Che, Congrats on the new venture, good luck. Interesting perspective, IOT is already here and has massive potential, of course with obvious risks. It will be interesting to see how things shape out. RE: your Q&A 1, No definitely not. Connecting people globally can give us phenomenal results. Although I think individuals can manage their Internet habits better with more discipline to leverage the benefits, while mitigating the risks. Its also important to remember that we are people, and we still need to run around in the mud and talk to each other from time to time :) 2, Time will tell, I think its too early to say really, but it can also be subjective. If you asked this question on the same day that DYN were taken out by the Mirai botnet attack which leverages a large number of IOT devices, you would have a very different set of responses. 3, I cannot answer :) I am related to some Lawyers, and they advised me not to post potentially libellous comments on a public forum.
CTO and co-founder at Stabiliti | Investor | Consultant | Security Professional
7 年Hi Che, great article. The Internet at the beginning was like a lot of innovative things, the focus was on functionality rather than secure by design. I guess it shows is that even after so many years the applications that drive the internet today still have problems.. Phishing, malware, DDoS, MitM so a couple of lessons is it's hard to change and applying protection after the fact isn't always an effective tactic. I think with the IoT we have an opportunity. We're at a stage where we can still make the right decisions that'll form the future and it's the platform providers and the application developers that can take that forward. There's some great innovations out there at the moment, but it's a bit of a land grab and this will lead to fragmentation in the market, confusion regarding customer choice and compatibility gaps. When we start reading about the Mesh and intelligent things it's safe to say that when it comes to protecting privacy and maintaining data integrity we need different approaches than we currently have today.
Business Solutions Manager & Solution Architect
7 年Yes, yes and no comment, but then you won't be surprised! All the best Che