Since we are still in the topic of “Smart Nation, Smart Cities”, let us focus into another area of “Smart”: “Smart Technology”.

Have you wonder what is the world going to be like in the future, with Smart Technology? There are many examples for what this might look like or what the potential value might be. For example, the moment you start your car engine, the display on your car would have already accessed your office meeting calendar, and had planned the smooth and fastest route to the meeting destination. While driving, your car would get the latest updated traffic information from Internet and start giving alternative route to the destination. Unfortunately, traffic congestions start to build up and your car might send out a notification text message to your customer to inform them that you struck in traffic jams and may arrive late for the meeting.

The truth is that the IoT opens endless opportunities and it is not hard to see how and why the IoT is such a hot topic today. It creates and open up the door of great opportunities but also to many challenges.

I happened to come across an online video, illustrating one of the many challenges IoT faces. Take a look at the video: Anatomy of an IOT Attack, by Cisco

As the video commented, they forecast, by the year 2020, there will be 30 billion of connected devices to Internet. Within the video content, a hacker is able to destroy a company by hacking through IoT devices, which is, open and unsecured against attacks. So, there are potential challenges that opens to threat opportunities if not careful.

So what now?

With the popular trends of IoT taking place all over the world, we should be more aware of the current challenges and also the potential challenges. The best thing we can do is to educate ourselves on the potential impacts of IoT and how it will affect our work and live.

Jack Leo, Technical Manager
Homeland Security