After years of worry, the long-anticipated backlash to the changes wrought by the Internet of Things may finally be arriving. That could be a good thing.

As pretty much everyone knows, the Internet of Things (IoT) hype has been going strong for a few years now. I’ve done my part, no doubt, covering the technology extensively for the past 9 months. As vendors and users all scramble to cash in, it often seems like nothing can stop the rise IoT.

Maybe not, but there have been rumblings of a backlash to the rise of IoT for several years. Consumer and experts worry that the IoT may not easily fulfill its heavily hyped promise, or that it will turn out to be more cumbersome than anticipated, allow serious security issues, and compromise our privacy.

Source: Is the IoT backlash finally here? | Network World

It was a peaceful day in the international company’s computer operations centre until, at 13.07, the monitoring services detected that there were several simultaneous attempts to probe a non-existent workstation. Four minutes later, a VHDL server attempted to access a Google search. And, four minutes after that, external friends confirmed that they were seeing potential broadcasts from the company to known bad sites. (External friends are other companies who mutually monitor sites.) At 13.20 – 13 minutes after the first recorded incident – instructions were issued that all the company’s sites should close down their IT activities. By 13.25 all external connections, including landline telephones, were closed down and all named machines were locked down. By 13.40 all on-site networks and machines were shut down – including printers and other intelligent peripherals – and remote users were being instructed to shut down. At 13.45 all the named representatives of a pre-defined Incident Response Team (IRT) left their remote sites for the central location and by 15.50 it was clear that all remote users were shut down.

Source: A Tale to Make Your Blood Run Cold | EEJournal

Internet of Things product manufacturers must get their act together and secure their devices or they risk creating new ways for wrongdoers to commit crimes, a senior police officer has warned.

“All new technologies, all changes in the way that society is ordered — particularly if it is technology — always has a crime harvest. So, when cars were invented, people started drink-driving and stealing cars and it’s exactly the same with the Internet of Things,” said chief constable Michael Barton, head of the Durham Constabulary.

Source: An Internet of Things ‘crime harvest’ is coming unless security problems are fixed | ZDNet

Everyone’s heard of the IoT – smart thermostats, Internet-connected refrigerators, connected lightbulbs – but there’s a subset called industrial IoT that has a much more significant day-to-day impact on businesses, safety and even lives.

The term IIoT refers to the Industrial Internet of Things. In broad strokes, it’s the application of instrumentation and connected sensors and other devices to machinery and vehicles in the transport, energy and industrial sectors.

Source: What is the Industrial IoT? And why the stakes are so high | Network World

With the growth of connected devices and the internet of things, consumers must adopt simple steps to help keep themselves cyber secure.

By the end of this year, there will be more than eight billion internet of things (IoT) devices connected worldwide, according to analysts Gartner – from electricity meters to smart fridges.

Many families buy such gadgets without imagining they might pose a security risk, but they still tend to be less well-secured than devices such as PCs. This means that families should be careful both when choosing and setting up their IoT devices, according to Det Insp Mick Dodge, National Cyber PROTECT coordinator with the City of London Police.

Source: Is cybersecurity keeping up with the internet of things? | The Telegraph

Internet of Things products are notorious for their cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and data protection protocol is struggling to keep pace with innovation demand. With the best will in the world, IoT networks cannot be secured without the tools for the job – yet Forrester has found half of tech security leaders do not have sufficient tools for enforcing policies.

Data privacy is undoubtedly top of the agenda for IT security professionals and recent research findings confirmed this, with 92% of respondents confirming they have security policies in place for managing IoT devices.

Source: How do you solve a problem like Internet of Things platform security? | Computer Business Review

The Internet of Things (IoT) has started to move to the mainstream in enterprises across all industries. With IoT spending set to increase by 15 percent to reach $772.5 billion by the end of 2018, the coming year will undoubtedly bring further growth in the number of connected devices and enterprise IoT projects. More importantly, I believe that in 2018 enterprise IoT projects will finally move beyond merely automating existing business processes, to truly transforming industries by creating entirely new revenue streams and business models. This will be due in part to the concurrent rise of synergistic technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and fog computing, as well as an industry-wide move toward greater interoperability, standards and collaboration.

Source: 5 predictions for the Internet of Things in 2018 and beyond | Network World

It’s easy to be skeptical about new technology trends. There’s always something new that tech companies are peddling, and their devices sometimes fall short of expectations. But when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT) — where formerly unconnected things are connected to the internet to track and analyze data — there are plenty of reasons why investors should fight the urge to be skeptical.

The IoT is already prevalent, and it’s transforming how many business keep track of their equipment, it’s creating new products for major tech companies, and it’s transforming how we interact with our homes. If you’re still skeptical that the IoT is worth investing in, take a look at some the facts…

Source: These Jaw-Dropping Facts Will Change Your Mind About the Internet of Things | Motley Fool

On a clear day this summer, security researcher Ang Cui boarded a boat headed to a government biosafety facility off the northeastern tip of Long Island. Cui’s security company, Red Balloon, will spend the next year studying how its Internet of Things threat-scanning tool performs on the building control systems of Plum Island Animal Disease Center. If successful, the project could provide a critical tool in the fight against vulnerabilities in embedded industrial systems and critical infrastructure.

“The island is only accessible via a ferry. The dock is protected by armed guards and I presume patrolled by the Coast Guard,” Cui says. Those protections, though, mean nothing to potential hackers. So Cui’s goal is to “help make the island’s cybersecurity as resilient as its physical security.”

Source: A New Way to Track Down Bugs Could Help Save IoT | WIRED

The infinite possibilities and potential applications surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT) have been well-hyped over the past few years, but the technology is at a tipping point in terms of adoption as we head into 2018.

IoT, the ability of everyday devices to connect and transfer data to each other, is already carving out a place in the consumer market, with devices like smart home locks, thermostats, lighting and energy monitors.

The latest research also claims that 29% of organisations have already implemented IoT solutions, and this is expected to surge to 48% in 2018, as businesses are increasingly sold on the cost-savings and the productivity-enhancing benefits of IoT.

Source: The Internet of Things: The security crisis of 2018? | Information Age