Steve Wozniak Believes The Internet of Things Bubble Could Burst

I've described the IoT as a solution looking for a problem.

While shabaz has pointed out that there are smart meters and the like, it isn't something that is taking off at high speed.

As the consumer becomes more aware of security issues, then I suspect the uptake will also reduce.

Secure systems will be a survivor, but there may still be a backlash.

I recall some time ago being told we wouldn't need a keyboard as we would all talk to our computers.

I've been guilty of that .... but not in a language that would be considered PC ...

and it was not the computer but the connection to the world that was the cause.

So I'm afraid I tend to agree about the bubble thing.

Mark

Hi Mark,

These are good points. You've mentioned very good examples of security issues in some other posts too. Also the separation between what IoT could/should/does mean and what it means to the average consumer today can be quite wide, as pointed out by both John's.

To summarize I guess we're seeing that growth of IoT in consumer space, and non-consumer space are two different things, and will grow at different speeds. I guess we all agree we can't always assume we're talking about consumer since there is a ton of other applications too, e.g. by looking at (say) IBM's and Bosch's visions of IoT, they have nice diagrams which explain their vision, and most of it looks commercial/industrial, no surprise since that is a huge part of their business. However even the ITU 2005 vision of IoT (i.e. quite ancient) mentions consumer examples but it also mentions probably more non-consumer examples. But perceptions change over time, and IoT does seem to be associated with consumer IoT a lot.

If we look at consumer apps for IoT for now, then the security point raised are very true, for many reasons, but looking at just a couple for now: One reason is that it is "easier" to have weak security, and poor consumer IoT will result until people get burnt or vote with their money and go with more advanced offerings.

As an aside, I personally can't see that fines/legislation will help much - eBay, Sony, Target and others have leaked data in the past, and most consumers didn't receive anything apart from perhaps a "we're sorry" message - and these were not IoT related. In some ways it was worse than the smart TV example, because personal records of age, address etc could be valuable for years, i.e. the information lost still has significant value and could be dispersed far, whereas a consumer IoT breach which indicates when an occupant is not at home could result in a theft that is one-time (the information lost is no longer relevant after some time has passed) and could be covered by insurance. This is a very contrived comparison of course, and others could be far worse so it is right that we are so focussed on security for IoT. I just wanted to point out that we have weaknesses in non-IoT offerings too, and most of those are (just a personal opinion) unforgivable too.

Another key reason however is that IoT solutions consist of so many individual systems, that whole solution-wide security considerations are needed. There could be the best secure encryption from the home gateway to the cloud, but a transmission by a wireless node could be enough to indicate if someone is at home or not as I think you've mentioned. For consumer IoT, perhaps many firms with offerings will have difficulty due to lack of experience or knowledge. We know that from seeing some kickstarters. It is a problem perhaps more easily solved by the firms in control of many parts of potential solutions - not mentioning any names, but it is obvious who some of these players could be.

For other verticals like the oil mining or energy examples, or the healthcare example that DAB mentioned, then it is more straightforward (all relative) to have secure offerings because the entire solution can be more strictly controlled - for example to use only specific devices, whereas a consumer application in a home environment might use WiFi and a cheap router running old firmware.

By the way sorry for the wide digressions off the original post about Woz' comments! I'm not familiar with whether a financial bubble is occurring, so I can only contribute on a few technology points : (

shabaz

sorry for the wide digressions off the original post

It was about IoT and therefore it isn't off post at all.

I think the security leaks of the companies you mentioned were not intentional, they had privacy policies, etc in place and the leak was either a result of hacking or something else.

The difference with most of these IoT devices is there is none, no policy, and the consumer may not even be aware of how (and what) information the device sends.

In NZ we have a Privacy Act, and one of the parts is that information collected for one purpose is not to be used for another (I'm paraphrasing).

Ie you can't collect electricty usage data, and then sell them a security system because the data shows them away between x and z.

The act tends to get quoted whenever someone doesn't want to supply any information ...but thats another story.

So legislation can be made to work around IoT.

It takes someone in government willing to protect it's consumers from industry.

Mark

shabaz

sorry for the wide digressions off the original post

It was about IoT and therefore it isn't off post at all.

I think the security leaks of the companies you mentioned were not intentional, they had privacy policies, etc in place and the leak was either a result of hacking or something else.

The difference with most of these IoT devices is there is none, no policy, and the consumer may not even be aware of how (and what) information the device sends.

In NZ we have a Privacy Act, and one of the parts is that information collected for one purpose is not to be used for another (I'm paraphrasing).

Ie you can't collect electricty usage data, and then sell them a security system because the data shows them away between x and z.

The act tends to get quoted whenever someone doesn't want to supply any information ...but thats another story.

So legislation can be made to work around IoT.

It takes someone in government willing to protect it's consumers from industry.

Mark