Over the past ten years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has penetrated almost all areas of our lives. The Internet of Things shifts the role of concern for human comfort and safety to smart gadgets that perform monotonous and sometimes dangerous work. IoT technology is now forming a common information space with people.
How IoT creates a comfort zone for life
Despite all the controversy and even fears about the ubiquitous Internet of Things, the latter is designed to make human life easier and more comfortable. Obviously, the possibilities of IoT are not limited to this. However, most of the well-established smart devices are related to the functional comfort of our daily life and work. The data received from them is already perceived as a widespread phenomenon of modern life and does not cause internal rejection.
Today, whether they like it or not, consumers should get used to the fact that most manufacturers have begun to actively implement IoT technologies in household appliances and other products. For example, at the moment it is difficult to find a TV in the store that would not have the ability to connect to the Internet. Actually, this has already become a standard feature for many devices, and manufacturers of refrigerators, kettles, washing machines, and so on will soon be massively introduced.
The most popular and widely used IoT solution for home comfort is called a smart home. With its help, it became possible to remotely control your home: turn on / off various electrical appliances and lighting, watch children and animals using a video camera and smartphone, set the desired temperature parameters, etc.
When it comes to functional comfort, the Internet of Things is not just for home use. Convenient IoT solutions also include special sensors and wearable gadgets that allow you to monitor the physical condition of a person, make online payments, and park and warm up cars. GPS systems, RFID tags, ATMs, POS terminals, and many objects connected to the network create a zone of functional comfort and simplify our lives.
Let machines do the chores for humans
In addition to convenience, IoT allows various types of labor-intensive, repetitive, dangerous, or harmful processes to be offloaded to machines in multiple areas.
Smart gadgets have freed people from routine work. Now they automatically, under any weather conditions, 24 hours a day, without days off and holidays, control industrial systems, the condition, and transportation of goods, regulate traffic, monitor the environmental situation, and do a lot of other useful things. Computerization of standard processes using IoT equipment is actively used today in medicine, agriculture, and transport, minimizing the human factor and its inherent risks.
Irrigation systems and monitoring of the state of soil and crops have proven themselves well in agriculture. Sensors assigned to specific areas or even individual plants generate a round-the-clock data stream, which, after processing, transmits data to the operator about the state of the field and notifies the need for special measures. With the help of special solutions based on the Internet of Things, it has become possible not only to monitor remote offshore wind turbines. This makes it possible not to send specialists to remote offshore platforms for preventive maintenance.
In fact, these are just a few notable examples. At the same time, mass automation of everything and everything based on the Internet of things is not always advisable.
According to Surfshark, the use of smart devices is hampered by various problems, most of which are related to low data transfer speeds and significant delays, as well as insufficient security of networks and devices.
Is IoT technology secure?
Every day, a huge number of smart and at the same time potentially vulnerable gadgets are connected to the Internet. The data that IoT gadgets collect is very valuable to cybercriminals, and the network infrastructure can be damaged or destroyed as a result of a malware attack. That is why different methods of protecting financial, personal, and any other data and cybersecurity, in general, are equally important for business owners, as well as for the state and individual users.
Despite fair criticism of the weak security of smart devices themselves, ensuring data security and integrity is a fundamental part of the IoT ecosystem.
Security measures that ensure the functioning of IoT gadgets are applied in four areas: connection, identification, data encryption, and application security. As a rule, these measures are implemented by each manufacturer of devices and software individually. Essentially, IoT security systems are aimed at detecting and preventing data leakage. They are also used to prevent unauthorized access by outsiders to the system in order to steal information, which in some cases is more dangerous than taking control of the gadget.
At the same time, IoT devices themselves are part of security systems. To date, a wide range of home security systems has become widespread. Smart sensors warn of unwanted events such as home intrusion, gas leaks, smoke, and so on. Children’s smart watches allow not only to monitor the location of children through the parents’ mobile phone but also to maintain voice communication with them, as well as send alarms when the device is removed or leaving a certain area. You can also find a lost turned-off cell phone.
Mass security systems operate in places of significant congestion of people.
With their help, face recognition of passengers at airports and railway stations is carried out. This makes it possible to track the movements of dangerous criminals and terrorists.
The European Commission has started funding the MONICA project, aimed at developing a security system to protect people in crowded places (stadiums, amusement parks, etc.). It looks like it will include smart body cameras, wristbands, drones, GPS systems, and RFID tags. most security systems very soon.
The Internet of Things, despite the problems with its own security, is already playing an important role in the global security paradigm. The challenge for IoT developers is also to ensure that security improvements do not introduce new vulnerabilities.
The Future of the Internet of Things
The development of the IoT field goes hand in hand with the increase in the amount of data collected and stored. It is predicted that very soon large networks consisting of billions of smart gadgets will exchange data with each other.
This will lead to the interweaving of the digital world with the physical. We are facing a completely new information environment, where smart things will record everything that happens in the real world, analyze the accumulated experience and make decisions for us. This information environment will change all areas of human life and over time can turn people into some kind of device managers. And who knows what role artificial intelligence will play?
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