Our toasters are brave

Our toasters are brave

Context:

• Today, the “Internet of Things” (IoT), the term coined by Peter T. Lewis in 1985, is threatening to take control of the planet.

Background:

• Interestingly, one of the first IoTs is perhaps what John Romkey created — a toaster that could be turned on and off over the Internet for the Interop conference (1989).
• During 2008, the number of “things” connected to the Internet surpassed the number of people on Earth.
• According to Cisco, 50 billion connected “things” will be used globally in 2020.
• It is predicted “that the worldwide IoT market will grow to $7.1 trillion by 2020, compared to $1.9 trillion in 2013. By 2020, it’s estimated that 90% of cars will be connected to the Internet, compared to 10% in 2012”.

Threats IoT poses:

• But, we must keep in mind that the IoT would generate loads of data posing a serious security and privacy threat.
• Hackers may exploit such weak spots.

Measures to be taken:

• Software must be designed accordingly and remote devices locked down as well.
• We need to be alert while interacting with the new ecosystem of appliances.
• The users of the IoT also have to be ‘smart’, keeping security concerns in mind.