Fredric Paul
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Fredric Paul
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Is the U.S. finally about to take IoT security seriously?
Does IoT stand for “internet of threats”? One senator says it might soon, and warned that the internet of things could “pose a direct threat to economic prosperity, privacy and our nation’s security.”Indeed, security issues plaguing IoT devices have long been a concern, and last week congressional Democrats introduced a bill designed to help mitigate what are seen as widespread vulnerabilities. But while the effort is noble and may help raise awareness of the issues, there are lots of reasons why the Cyber Shield Act of 2017 won’t end up doing much to actually solve the problem.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IoT market keeps growing, with no end in sight
With all the hype it’s getting, you might think the Internet of Things (IoT) simply couldn’t gain any more momentum. Well, think again, because new market research and a wave of global IoT investments from sovereign nations and top-name companies keeps on accelerating the IoT momentum.Growth, growth and more growth First off, IHS Markit has published a new ebook in which it predicts serious growth for IoT: “The number of connected IoT devices worldwide will jump 12 percent on average annually, from nearly 27 billion in 2017 to 125 billion in 2030.”According to the ebook, titled “The Internet of Things: a movement, not a market,” (pdf) that growth “is impacting virtually all stages of industry and nearly all market areas — from raw materials to production to distribution and even the consumption of final goods.” To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Industrial IoT meets the iPhone and iPad in new GE/Apple deal
Is a smartphone a thing?The question isn’t as silly as it may sound, at least in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) and this week’s partnership between Apple and General Electric. According to Apple, the deal calls for the two companies to “deliver powerful industrial apps designed to bring predictive data and analytics from Predix, GE’s industrial IoT platform, to iPhone and iPad.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Keep IoT under your hat … your hardhat, that is
My wife is an architect, and she sometimes wears a hardhat to job sites. I’ve always thought her bright white hardhat was super cool, but it turns out her model is hopelessly behind the times.When is a hat more than just a hat? That’s because the latest hardhats are no longer just simple combinations of hard plastic and a shock-absorbing suspension so you don’t get knocked out if you walk into an exposed beam or something. The once-humble hardhat has now been upgraded to include Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities.Also on Network World: 5 things to think about for industrial IoT readiness Michigan-based startup GuardHat Inc. has created an IoT hardhat that includes a beacon designed to continuously transmit data to a safety control center. The idea is for the system to use Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity to track each worker’s location for safety and worker management issues. Most important, GuardHat is built to be able to send alerts to the control center with the hat’s (and hopefully the worker’s) precise location — within 1 meter — after a fall or other safety incident. (A built-in accelerometer can detect falls, and there’s also an SOS button to summon Continue reading
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3 ways IoT can drive business value
You can’t escape the IoT momentum these days. The Internet of Things is being used for everything from saving the rhino from poaching to leveraging stray dogs to fight crime. (No, really, I’m not kidding… check the links!) But even as vendors spend billions to try and grab IoT market share, it’s not always clear exactly how their business customers are supposed to actually benefit from IoT. (The challenges can be equally hard to understand). According to a thoughtful new report from Forrester, the answer lies in three fundamental business scenarios:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Forrester: 3 ways IoT can drive business value
You can’t escape the IoT momentum these days. The Internet of Things is being used for everything from saving the rhino from poaching to leveraging stray dogs to fight crime. (No, really, I’m not kidding… check the links!) But even as vendors spend billions to try and grab IoT market share, it’s not always clear exactly how their business customers are supposed to actually benefit from IoT. (The challenges can be equally hard to understand). According to a thoughtful new report from Forrester, the answer lies in three fundamental business scenarios:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Hitachi reorganizes to focus on IoT
In yet another sign of how the Internet of Things (IoT) is re-arranging the international corporate landscape, Japanese manufacturing giant Hitachi is reorganizing to challenge the global leaders in the IoT market. The conglomerate is combining three of its Bay Area divisions into a single $4 billion unit responsible for growing Hitachi's IoT operations in more than 130 countries.The new IoT-centric operation will combine Hitachi Data Systems (data center infrastructure), Hitachi Insight Group (big data software) and Pentaho (analytics) into a wholly owned subsidiary called Hitachi Vantara, which will employ some 7,000 people (about a of third of Hitachi’s IT workforce) out of its Santa Clara, California, headquarters.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Fixing, upgrading and patching IoT devices can be a real nightmare
Ensuring cybersecurity for computers and mobile phones is a huge, complex business. The ever-widening scope and unbelievable variety of threats makes keeping these devices safe from cyber criminals and malware a full-time challenge for companies, governments and individuals around the world.But at least the vast majority of those devices are easily accessible, safe in the pockets or sitting on the desktops of the very people who want to protect them. The Internet of Things (IoT) devices that need protection, on the other hand, could be almost anywhere: sitting in a remote desert, buried deep in coal mine, built into a giant truck. Or, even implanted inside the human body.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Fixing, upgrading and patching IoT devices can be a real nightmare
Ensuring cybersecurity for computers and mobile phones is a huge, complex business. The ever-widening scope and unbelievable variety of threats makes keeping these devices safe from cyber criminals and malware a full-time challenge for companies, governments and individuals around the world.But at least the vast majority of those devices are easily accessible, safe in the pockets or sitting on the desktops of the very people who want to protect them. The Internet of Things (IoT) devices that need protection, on the other hand, could be almost anywhere: sitting in a remote desert, buried deep in coal mine, built into a giant truck. Or, even implanted inside the human body.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Apple Watch / Red Sox cheating scandal points toward larger issues
Newsflash: Someone just found a viable use case for the Apple Watch. Too bad it turned out to be cheating at baseball!Wearable technology such as fitness trackers and smart watches have long been seen as aids for athletes to improve their performance and help them win. And that’s great. But now that the Boston Red Sox have been caught red handed using Apple Watches to communicate and transfer signs stolen from the Yankees, it seems there may also be an unanticipated dark side to the Internet of Things (IoT) in sports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The Internet of Things goes to school
It appears research universities are a great place to test Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. That’s because they often comprise a microcosm of a wide variety of organizational and technical environments.Gordon Wishon, CIO of Arizona State University, explained the reasoning to Campus Technology this way:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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AI and IoT: Like peanut butter and chocolate?
If you had to take a guess, what would you name as the two most prominent trends in technology right now? Like most people, I feel pretty confident in choosing artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), not necessarily in that order.But in a rare convergence, in turns out these two trends are even hotter together. In fact, the new hotness is the combination of AI and IoT, manifesting itself in a wide variety of form and implementations in locations around the world.IBM’s Watson wants to bring ‘cognitive computing’ to IoT At IBM, for example, the company opened a Watson Internet of Things headquarters in Munich, Germany, earlier this year. The lab pairs IBM with partners such as BMW, Bosch and Ricoh. The goal, per the company’s Watson IoT website, is to marry cognitive computing (the Watson AI platform) to vast arrays of IoT sensors. The company quotes an IDC report that claims IBM and Watson “can demonstrate the power of cognitive analytics in the IoT."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Connected cars have an ‘indefensible’ security vulnerability
One of the most attractive promises of IoT-powered connected cars is enhanced safety. Connected cars use the Internet of Things (IoT) to help avoid accidents and control a wide array of safety technologies, from anti-lock brakes to airbags.But according to security firm Trend Micro, these safety systems are even more vulnerable to hacking than was previously thought. In a blog post published last week, "The Crisis of Connected Cars: When Vulnerabilities Affect the CAN Standard," the company publicized an effective, vendor-neutral hack that is “currently indefensible by modern car security technology.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Connected cars have an ‘indefensible’ security vulnerability
One of the most attractive promises of IoT-powered connected cars is enhanced safety. Connected cars use the Internet of Things (IoT) to help avoid accidents and control a wide array of safety technologies, from anti-lock brakes to airbags.But according to security firm Trend Micro, these safety systems are even more vulnerable to hacking than was previously thought. In a blog post published last week, "The Crisis of Connected Cars: When Vulnerabilities Affect the CAN Standard," the company publicized an effective, vendor-neutral hack that is “currently indefensible by modern car security technology.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IoT is about to tell you when your food is spoiled
“It’s not getting any younger.”In my house, that’s code for either eating or trashing something in the refrigerator that’s flirting with its “best-by” date — or just no longer looks as appetizing as it once did.Sensors are the core of the Internet of Things But what if Internet of Things (IoT) sensor technology could tell you whether that lasagna was still safe for dinner or whether it’s time to toss the hair-coloring product slowly drying out in the back of your medicine cabinet? That promise is what’s on the menu at the 254th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in Washington, D.C., this week. So, what does the world’s largest scientific society, with more than 157,000 members, have to do with IoT? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Is IoT really driving enterprise digital transformation?
The Internet of Things is often thought of as primarily an industrial and consumer technology. But there’s a growing consensus that IoT is also taking a leading role in digital transformation in a wide variety of business applications in locations around the world. Survey says: Global enterprises bullish on IoT A recent study by satellite communications vendor Inmarsat, for example, reveals that IoT is the top priority for 92 percent of the more than 500 enterprises surveyed across the globe. Titled “The Future of IoT in Enterprise 2017,” the report assembles responses from companies that have more than 1,000 workers in agritech, energy production, transportation and mining.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The very real dangers of betting on hybrid cloud
Hybrid cloud architectures are currently very popular as a way for enterprises to move to the cloud without abandoning their existing data center investments. At first glance, the strategy makes sense, but there’s a very real danger that the hybrid cloud’s popularity will turn out to be little more than a transitional stage, potentially distracting companies from optimizing either their on-premise data centers or their migration to the cloud.The many meanings of ‘hybrid cloud’ Making things more complicated, the term “hybrid cloud” can have a number of meanings, but at the root it covers any combination of traditional and cloud architectures. That can mean anything from a traditional data center shop running a couple of non-strategic, standalone applications in the cloud to complex architectures with some core applications residing on-premise and others in various cloud implementations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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The very real dangers of betting on hybrid cloud
Hybrid cloud architectures are currently very popular as a way for enterprises to move to the cloud without abandoning their existing data center investments. At first glance, the strategy makes sense, but there’s a very real danger that the hybrid cloud’s popularity will turn out to be little more than a transitional stage, potentially distracting companies from optimizing either their on-premise data centers or their migration to the cloud.The many meanings of ‘hybrid cloud’ Making things more complicated, the term “hybrid cloud” can have a number of meanings, but at the root it covers any combination of traditional and cloud architectures. That can mean anything from a traditional data center shop running a couple of non-strategic, standalone applications in the cloud to complex architectures with some core applications residing on-premise and others in various cloud implementations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IoT is everywhere
Technology pundits are often given to hyperbole, but when they claim that the Internet of Things (IoT) is changing everything, they may have a point. At least, the IoT is being used in just about everything you can think of, from deeply geeky applications such as industrial sensors to frivolous gimmicks like Wi-Fi enabled toothbrushes.Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look at some of the many, many different IoT use cases that people are actually using—or at least testing.Fitness wearables: IoT is the key concept powering wearables from fitness trackers to smartwatches, but keeping weekend warriors fit is only the beginning. Elite athletes and professional sports franchises are using IoT to push their performance parameters. At the other end of the spectrum, IoT can track your pet’s location and health.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Now you can get a bachelor’s degree in data center engineering
In an era where all the hot tech jobs seem to focus on application development and cloud computing, it can be hard to find fresh data center engineering talent. The Institute of Technology in Sligo, Ireland, is trying to rewrite that story with a new Bachelors Degree in Data Center Facilities Engineering, starting this fall.According to the school, “The purpose of this new engineering degree programme is to provide the Data Centre industry with staff who are qualified to provide the proficient and in-depth skills necessary for the technical management and operation of data centre facilities. Expert operation and maintenance of these facilities is crucial in order to maintain 24/7 services with optimum energy efficiency.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here