long day of work or a frigid commute. (An Internet-connnected toothbrush is also already available.)
While these may sound like indulgences, the safety, convenience and security that such networks can provide will become increasingly essential for aging societies.
Businesses will find the IoT valuable too, as it allows closer scrutiny of inventories, closer tracking of parts, materials and deliveries. That data should promote greater efficiency and greater control over costs. Remote sensing can be used for agricultural production, safety monitoring and even health care.
Wearable devices, the newest fashion trend, will enable individuals to better monitor their health, immediately and from a distance. That market is forecast to grow from 42 million devices in 2013, with a market value of $0.6 billion, to 171 million in 2018.
The extraordinary opportunities afforded by the Internet of things means that costs will rise when it does not work as designed. Increased dependence on networks will increase the impact of disruptions. It is one thing if a cable is cut and on-demand movies are made unavailable; it is another when emergency response systems go down.
Those new opportunities also create new vulnerabilities and new challenges. First and foremost is the need for strong security, and the IoT magnifies the security concerns exponentially.
If data is valuable, it must be protected and that protection must extend not only to the data itself — an already formidable assignment given the almost daily reports of data thefts — but also to the sensors, which can be tampered with, and the network itself, which is, by definition, ubiquitous.
Mobility eases access for designated users and hackers alike. Since a network is only as strong as its weakest node, a new culture of security among ordinary citizens is going to be required. History and human nature suggest this will be an uphill battle.
A second key challenge is creating a new culture of privacy. Recent revelations about the U.S. National Security Agency have provided a glimpse into the potential of data collection. The Internet of things generates petabytes of data. Although the sheer scale is mind-numbing, authorities are capable of vacuuming it all up and mining it for meaning.
Every one of those sensors provides insight into daily life. While a particular transmission may seem harmless, in combination with other data points it can produce a disturbing and penetrating picture. Few individuals are worried when their web browsing yields data for companies to market their products, but a sensor that identifies medical purchases and produces a consumer profile that could be used to discriminate against a citizen is another matter altogether.
Again, the record is not encouraging. Individual citizens have not been sufficiently vigilant to protect their privacy against invasion; nor have companies been able to protect the data they have collected. It is a dangerous combination and one that will have more alarming results as the Internet of things worms its way into daily life.