What IoT Needs to Go Mainstream in the Next Decade

A few years ago less than 1% of things in the physical world were connected. Now people have smart blenders and washing machines. They have thermostats that automatically adjust themselves based on the weather. They have smart watches that track and report their biometrics. They have connected cars, smart healthcare devices — the list goes on.

On the surface, it seems like IoT has already become a major part of people’s everyday lives. But when you look at the big picture, how mainstream is it really? Maybe the number of connected things in the physical world went from 1 to 1.5%? Maybe 2%?

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a mainstream tech topic for years now. But that hasn’t brought it into the mainstream of people’s everyday lives. Even in the developed world, most people don’t rely on IoT for their day-to-day lives, even if they own IoT devices.

IoT is not mainstream yet, and there’s still a lot of work to do in this sector before it will truly become so. Because the more IoT penetrates people’s lives, the more negative PR it seems to get.

IoT Horror Stories

The fact is IoT devices are inherently insecure, and consumers are well aware of this. Tales of hackers breaching IoT devices make up many of the shocking stories you hear on the late night news today. You’ve probably heard the story about the hacker that took over a baby monitor and broadcast threats through it. That’s just one horror story on a growing list of hacking incidents made possible by IoT.

Last year the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a public service announcement warning that "Cyber actors use Internet of Things devices as proxies for anonymity and pursuit of malicious cyber activities."

Cyber criminals routinely use IoT devices and networks to:

• Send spam emails
• Maintain anonymity
• Obfuscate network traffic
• Monitor and take over internet browsing
• Generate click-fraud activities
• Buy, sell and trade illegal images and goods
• Sell IoT botnets to other cyber criminals
• And more

The security of IoT devices and networks is so abysmal that their mere existence results in an increase in cyber crime. According to the 2019 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report, cyber attacks were up 217.5% on Smart Home connected devices in 2018.

Businesses that use IoT devices in manufacturing or for cloud storage are just as vulnerable as day-to-day consumers, but with much more devastating consequences if subject to a cyber attack. Businesses today store vast amounts of critical data using IoT networks. Cyber criminals have major opportunities to lock companies out of their own systems, or even steal sensitive information from them.

Necessary Solutions

Consumers and business owners are well aware of the issues with using IoT devices today. And as adoption continues to grow, it’s going to pop up in the news more and more. There’s going to be a breaking point where the risks of using IoT devices greatly outweigh the benefits. And at this rate, it’s approaching long before IoT ever reaches mainstream.

IoT doesn’t just need better PR, it needs better security. It’s likely the technology needs to be completely reworked. But some progress is already being made.

A couple of weeks ago I saw news that US researchers were developing a new algorithm that could protect IoT devices from cyber attacks. Their program regulates how some small devices emit power and radiation when encoding or decoding information. This essentially masks the signal of IoT devices so hackers can’t gain access to encrypted information. The changes involve restructuring device design at the algorithmic level.

In another example, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a program to incorporate defense mechanisms into chip design that IoT device designers can scale at need. This is also a case of reworking the core technology behind IoT, instead of adding on security features to the existing IoT ecosystem.

Maybe in the future researchers will come up with a security solution that doesn’t require IoT users to buy all new devices. For now it’s just too early to tell.

The Bottom Line

When I type “IoT” into Google News results over the coming years, there needs to be more news about security/protection, and less news about IoT growth and applications. Everybody understands how great IoT is. But expecting society as a whole to accept and utilize a system that is inherently dangerous is only a dream. In the case of IoT, innovation has come before safety long enough. It’s time to make the switch.