Ron Wilson, Altera Corporation
May 29, 2014
Enthusiastic promotion for the Internet of Things (IoT) is rising like an all-pervading dawn over the electronics landscape. From home automation to transportation systems to telemedicine, the concept of connecting local devices—or even individual actuators and sensors—to the Internet is illuminating new wonderful possibilities. Manage your home from your smart phone? With the IoT it’s natural. Connect images, vital signs, and blood chemistry of an isolated rural patient to a diagnostic expert-system running on ten-thousand servers? With the IoT, it’s easy, they say. But some experts warn that a very dark cloud is spreading toward this glorious dawn. Unlimited connectivity, these designers caution, brings unlimited vulnerability. Yet security remains among the least-discussed topics in the public IoT furor. Early this month, a panel at the IoT Developers’ Conference sought to rebalance the discussion. Experts engaged in initial deployments of the network sought to explore deeper into the growing shadows of risk that mar the IoT dawn.