Who doesn’t love gadgets? I won’t say I’m an early adopter but there’s always something coming out that I’d happily add to my collection. And for anyone thinking the pandemic would slow down innovation, think again! Just checking out the range of new products and technologies displayed at this January’s CES 2022¹ proved how device manufacturers aren’t just staying afloat, they’re surging ahead.

Foreword

From fully connected autonomous cars, laptops with foldable OLED displays², VR headsets, advances in smartwatches, connected vacuums, smart thermostats, smart doors, and connected outdoor gaming consoles³, you name it, the list was massive! You can even get a smart bird feeder!⁴

This isn’t even mentioning all the industrial innovations. But one thing is noticeably clear. Connected devices are king and are everywhere. Not that long ago they were seen as emerging technologies, today they’re mainstream. We aren’t that far from 4D printing, quantum computing, nano-engineering, and even ‘smart dust’⁵ becoming common.

But this surge in connected, IoT devices, clearly comes with many challenges and concerns. Especially regarding security, safety, and reliability. Being widespread shouldn’t mean that devices are rushed into production. Industrial use, especially, can’t afford to get this wrong. If a new smart ring sends incorrect or incomplete data to a healthcare provider about a patient, that can result in potential trouble. And what if that data is stolen?

New kids on the blockchain

As IoT devices and smart services continue their unstoppable expansion into homes and industries, the amount of data collected, sent, processed, analyzed, and sent again is eating up processing power, bandwidth, battery life, and storage. Thankfully, a variety of technologies are appearing (or maturing) that promise to help.

Linking security and trust

As defined by IBM²³, “Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network. An asset can be tangible (a house, car, cash, land) or intangible (intellectual property, patents, copyrights, branding). Virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded on a blockchain network, reducing risk and cutting costs for all involved.”

For data sent from IoT devices, this provides the highest levels of security as stored information cannot be changed and is placed within a decentralized peer-to-peer network. In realtime. All data is then secured within a unique ‘block’ (ultimately building into a chain of blocks) using cryptographic principles. Such blockchain networks can involve thousands of servers or connected computers, and this removes the potential of a catastrophic failure, or security breach, from a single point. In the mid to long term, this is what will drive the adoption of IoT and blockchain. With so many devices connecting to single system, secure vulnerabilities are too high. Blockchain can solve this.

Users benefit from data security, speed, and reliability. IoT developers can easily track their devices, effectively manage and secure data, save money by not using a service provider, and most importantly, build trust with their customers.

Working on the edge

One technology that is set to become core to IoT devices, is edge computing. ‘The edge’ is a distributed computing framework that is extremely fast, accurate, and secure. Traditionally, an IoT device sends data to the cloud (or a specific data server) where it is analyzed before being sent back to the end-user.

Clouding the issue

When it comes to IoT and the cloud, there are several choices. Public (where cloud services are offered by a cloud provider to multiple customers), private (where a provider supplies a cloud service to only one customer), hybrid (a mix of public, private, and/or an on-premises data center), and multicloud (a collection of public clouds where you might use one for storage and another for their applications).

All also offer a range of service models, including:

• Software-as-a-Service, where applications are hosted on remote servers, not local devices
• Platform-as-a-Service, where developers pay for the tools needed to build their applications
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service, where only servers and storage are used to build applications, with the IoT device developer building their applications with their own tools
• Function-as-a-Service, where the service provider owns everything but lets developers run code (for a fee), which is ideal for developers with only limited processing needs.

However, all cloud types have their specific pros and cons. Public tends to have security and compliance issues and there’s always the problem with vendor lock-in, however, it is costeffective and time-efficient. Private is often more expensive but provides more security, scalability, and flexibility. Hybrid is more complicated when it comes to integrations and security but offers more flexibility and fewer disruptions (if one cloud goes down). Multicloud generally has more latency, greater complexity, and higher difficulty balancing performance and reliability. But it does offer more redundancies and reduces vendor lock-in.

Regardless of which is used, the cloud is extremely important to IoT. By offering the storage space and tools to effectively manage vast amounts of data, the cloud provides a simplified, highly scalable, and cost-effective solution (compared to developing and maintaining your in-house system).

Currently, when it comes to IoT devices and the data they generate, the cloud is a popular choice, especially for small to mid-sized businesses.

Take center stage

One of the most important technologies required for IoT device development is the platform it is developed on. Deciding on the right one to use is a challenge but by carefully analyzing aims and goals, and determining how to achieve them, this can be simplified. One way to do this is by looking at IoT Technology Stacks and comparing them against the IoT Decision Framework.

The most common tech stack features five layers:

1. Device hardware
2. Device software
3. Communications
4. Cloud platform
5. Cloud applications

If the device (and its defined function) is to collect real-time data, how long do you keep it? To determine patterns over a longer period, should that data be moved to an analytics data warehouse? What happens to any data on the device?

Such considerations can help determine product design and which platforms, edge solutions, and cloud services can best meet these data requirements. To see how the technology stack can manage such data.

In a recent webinar³⁵, the unbelievable Machine Company (an Orange company), outlined seven tips for building an IoT data strategy:

1. Map your data to your use case at the beginning
2. Plan and create your IoT architecture
3. Overarching data management is core
4. Decide on data storage
5. Assess data volumes
6. Adopt end-to-end encryption
7. Collect only data that you need

The sixth point is vital.

Focus on security (physical and cyber)

In October 2016, an IoT botnet called Mirai launched a distributed denial-of-service attack on service provider Dyn³⁶. Once an individual device was infected it would then search for other vulnerable IoT devices and infect them, they would all then be ‘coordinated into bombarding a server with traffic until it collapses under the strain’. The botnet ultimately brought down huge sections of the Internet throughout the US and Europe.

In 2017, the US FDA confirmed that St. Jude Medicals’ implantable cardiac devices could be hacked³⁷. Batteries could then be depleted, and incorrect pacing or shocks could be administered. That same year, a children’s toy (the Cayla doll) was banned in Germany by their Federal Network Agency³⁸ because it was deemed to be like a surveillance device that could record video and sound without detection.

A 2020 study by Ordr³⁹ of over 5 million unmanaged, IoT, and Internet of Medical Things devices, found a ‘staggering number of vulnerabilities and risks’, including multiple issues with Shadow IoT⁴⁰.

An online search will find many more instances. Whether through weak passwords, old and unpatched software, insecure interfaces, lack of security updates, not enough data protection, or even hardware issues, IoT devices are prime targets for hackers, cybercriminals, and other bad agents.

To help address this, Microsoft develop their ‘seven properties of highly secured devices’⁴¹. Specifically, that highly secured devices must have:

• A hardware root of trust – Device identity and integrity are protected by hardware. Physical countermeasures resist side-channel attacks.
• Defense in depth – Multiple mitigations applied against threats. Countermeasures mitigate the consequences of a successful attack on any one vector.
• A small trusted computing base – Private keys stored in a hardware-protected vault, inaccessible to software – Division of software into self-protecting layers.
• Provide dynamic compartments – Hardware-enforced barriers between software components prevent a breach in one from propagating to others.
• Use password-less authentication – Signed token, signed by an unforgeable cryptographic key, proves the device’s identity and authenticity.
• Online error reporting – A software error, such as a buffer overrun induced by an attacker probing security, is reported to a cloud-based failure analysis system.
• Renewable security – Update brings the device forward to a secure state and revokes compromised assets for known vulnerabilities or security breaches.

Another essential component to consider is the physical device itself. Is it vulnerable to tampering? Could it be open to side-channel analysis?⁴² Body Bias Injection?⁴³ Temperature attacks?⁴⁴ Whether it’s to physically tamper with a device or introduce a fault that may enable access to the overall system, a device’s physical security must also be considered. When a device is situated in open or public areas, does it use a tamperproof enclosure? Security must be incorporated into the entire design process.

Don’t skimp on UI and UX

When focusing on use cases, technology, and security, it can be easy to forget one of the most important aspects of any device. Its user interface (UI). Beyond the physical device itself, the UI is all the users can see and interact with. If it isn’t user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing it can put the entire device back on the shelf. It is also the launching point for building a great user experience, where functionality, usability, and accessibility are constantly improved upon.

Every part matters

As IoT devices fill every home and impact every industry, developers who consider every aspect of their device’s development will gain a clear competitive advantage. Each must alleviate privacy concerns, be reliable, secure, compatible, and deliver a great experience. Every time it is used.

With the potential to positively impact individual lives, society, business efficiency, and even the environment, IoT devices can only go from strength to strength. Everyone should be happy to be a part of that.