On April, the 1st, day of the pranksters or just April Fool’s Day many companies prepared concepts of completely useless products. One of such products for me was Amazon Dash:
Apparently, over 1 week later this vision is still present and Amazon commented that it wasn’t a prank. It’s real. You will be able to put some kind of button on your washing machine and another one on a dishwasher and if any time you will lack laundry detergent you will press the button connected to your home WiFi network and order it instantly.
If Amazon also starts delivering orders using drones you will receive ordered products in under two hours.
 |
| Amazon Drone source: http://gizmodo.com/amazon-primeair-will-deliver-your-stuff-on-drones-1474589664 |
Probably the next step is to place such buttons on shelves where you store milk, fruits or even meat. Imagine you are getting home late, your fridge is almost empty: only 5 buttons are there. You are pressing each of them and two hours later you receive an email saying that your order is waiting in front of your door.
It’s some kind of magic - magic of Internet of Things (IoT). Internet of Things is network made of... things (usually devices) with some electronic chips and sensors that are connected together, can communicate and can be used to make some things easier.
Internet of things is present even in Poland. Some electric energy suppliers provide you with a smart meter - energy meter that is smart enough to send your energy usage - there’s no need to employee a person to visit each meter and write down numbers displayed on it. Now everything is send over a power line.
Another connected thing is a smart-lock (does everything need to be smart nowadays?):
 |
| Goji smart lock, source: http://www.gojiaccess.com/ |
It’s kind of door-lock that you can unlock using your smart-phone. Would you secure your home using one? I’m not going to. Never. Anything wireless can be hacked and all traces can be wiped.
It’s a great vision but makes me a little bit afraid about security and privacy of these solutions.
Recent blackout in Turkey and previous pipeline blast in the same country shows that my fears might be confirmed. These systems are still hackable. “Bad guys don’t need to access my electric bills” - one might say.
However electric usage can tell much more about you and your house: if you have any electric devices running, if they take much power (hmm, probably there’s something more in that house than just a fridge?), tell if you are home or not (from electric usage changes).
And everything being far, far away in just a few clicks. Not scary enough? Watch this:
What if Amazon placed a microphone (for voice ordering, of course!) in its Dash? That system might be still hackable and spy on you every time you are home. Listen to all private talks, chit-chats and even sounds of your bedroom.
Some of such meters are just tiny computers running modified versions of Unix-based systems, which can be hacked. Hackers could probably play with your power energy or energy system of the bank or even the Ministry of Defense. Blackout and war? That would lead to communication mess.
Comments
I always imagined that in the future we will be able to order things this way. Maybe one day when we watch a chocolate commercial and we would feel like eating it, we could just push a button and it would be brought to our apartment instantly (by a tube in the apartment or some other way).
And what do you think about dangers connected to such solutions? Aren't you afaird that someone may place some insect inside the tube and send it to your apartment?
Regarding IOT problems: I don't fear hackers. I think there are many ways to maintain security on different levels and to stay immune to them. For example the option to lower the power levels in the bank could be easily protected by manual approvement of the changes if they exceed some security treshold levels and alert responsible people also.
Do you think that in Turkey they didn't have any manual protection? Please remember, that weakest in the security chain is the human.
"The human side of computer security is easily exploited and constantly overlooked. Companies spend millions of dollars on firewalls, encryption, and secure access devices and it's money wasted because none of these measures address the weakest link in the security chain: the people who use, administer, operate and account for computer systems that contain protected information. . . ." Check Kevin Mitnick's "The Art of Deception" - it's great book where he describes that he did break people, not passwords to enter ARPANET network. And now he's one of the most famous hackers and is running security advisory company.
Don't you think that your IoT setup lacks some kind of interoperability? Ahh, I think that's why you called it 'primitive'. I believe that differs IoT from smart devices - in IoT they should perform some actions depending on each other.
Are you afraid of the dangers mentioned or there is another reason?
Despite that dronse are pretty good idea, but those buttons are totally pointless. Imagine how someone convinced colleagues at Amazon to go with this idea.
Accoriding to your consideration of putting a microphone to this button - you know that android phones activates when they here "ok google" command. I think it could work all the time. And have you hear about samsung smart tv? There was an huge issue, that the TV is listenig us all the time, pretty creepy!!!
To be honest, even though I understand the dangers of IoT, I'm pretty unsure why you consider it such a great danger. Of course, systems can be hacked - but your door can be lockpicked as well. There's no obstacle that cannot be overcome in that way or the other. I'm sure that as soon as IoT will become popular, the security level of it will drastically increase. The more complicated and more valuable the item or system, the more complicated methods are used to protect it. I don't see people being terrified by Internet bank accounts, and these can be hacked as well.
And even though invigilation is a threat for freedom, I don't think anyone would bother to plant hi-rech nano-cameras into your fridge button - unless you're an FBI agent, a politician or a star, that is ;)
„next step is to place such buttons on shelves where you store milk, fruits or even meat „ - as a side note, this reminds me of The Sims game. It's how Sims go grocery shopping: open the fridge, ka-ching, and there you go, all the necessary ingredients for their meal. :D
I agree with your thoughts on privacy security. There are already a lot ways to spy on us, yet it doesn't mean we should make it any easier. I don't feel important enough for people to spy on me, but opportunity makes the (information) thief.
The idea of Internet of Things is very tempting. Buttons ordering anything, smart auto shopping fridges, drones that provides out orders, all this sensors and controllers that controls our apartment...Super!
But there is one small thing, as Michał wrote 'Anything wireless can be hacked and all traces can be wiped.', the number of threats from this facilities is huge.
Even more, even total loss of privacy, which already are getting rid of every step.
Don't you think that making it easier to access our properties is the same as not closing them at all?
"God helps those who help themselves."
I don't think it's worth it.
About those buttons for ordering things - sounds nice but you can already order things on the Internet using your computer, it works the same way and you actually can pick a different product each time instead of buying the same things over and over again.
IoT is currently treated as gadgets, however, in the near future these kind of 'smart things' will be everyday devices.