IoT is one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of the tech industry. It will soon be an inherent part of every aspect of our lives. Security and Privacy are the most significant challenge for the IoT. Security and Privacy issues are acting as top barriers to IoT success. So, addressing underlying security and privacy concerns is very crucial.
As more and mored devices are being added to the IoT everyday, privacy and security concerns are becoming vital.
Security issue with IoT devices
Security is one of the main concerns of the IoT ("Internet of Things"). With billions of devices connected to the internet, it is needless to say that to protect your connected devices from malware penetrations is a real challenge. Security risks of IoT devices cannot be ignored whether it is from hackers or corporations. Increasing the number of connected devices increases the opportunity to exploit security vulnerabilities.
When IoT devices are connected to the cloud or data centers via internet, they get under the risk of being accessible to the outside world. Poorly designed devices can easily expose user data to theft.
There are many reasons behind the state of insecurity in IoT.
Companies do not update their devices enough or at all. This means that an IoT device which was safe when you first bought it can become unsafe as hackers discover new vulnerabilities.
The fundamental security weakness of the Internet of Things is that it increases the number of devices on the internet. Earlier, most of us had to only worry about protecting our computers, then, we had to worry about protecting our smartphones as well, and now after IoT, we have to worry about protecting our car, our home appliances, our wearables, and many other IoT devices.
Because there are so many devices that can be hacked, that means that hackers can accomplish more. You may have heard about how hackers could potentially remotely control cars and remotely accelerate or decelerate the car. But hackers could use even seemingly unimportant devices like baby monitors or your thermostat to uncover private information or just ruin your day. The point is that we have to think about what a hacker could do with a device if he can break through its security.
In this way, our normal day to day life and health can become the target of IoT hack attacks. Urban infrastructure can also become a target for hackers.
Privacy issue with IoT devices
Corporations which create and distribute interconnected devices could also use these devices to obtain personal data, particularly dangerous when used for money transfers. Manufacturers can steal the information about your habits and misuse it.
For example, consider how some companies are distributing Fitbits to their employees so that they can track their health and thus get lower health insurance premiums. Even if we ignore the worrying idea of workers’ health being monitored by corporations around the clock, there is the question of what corporations can do with the data they have gathered. Companies can attempt to send or even sell gathered data to other companies, which raises issues regarding our individual privacy rights.
Vision features and voice recognition are now being integrated into smart TVs. These features can listen continuously to conversations or look for activity and transmit data selectively to cloud services for processing. These cloud services may sometimes even include third parties. The collection of all this information faces a number of regulatory and legal challenges.
The collection of private information exposes legal and regulatory challenges facing data protection and privacy law. There are a wide range of regulatory and legal questions surrounding the IoT, which need thoughtful consideration. Legal issues with IoT devices include crossborder data flow, conflict between law enforcement surveillance and civil rights, data retention and destruction policies, and legal liability for unintended uses, security breaches or privacy lapses.
In short, Security and Privacy issues are the biggest issues which consumers, businesses and governments need to consider before using IoT connected devices.
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