Challenges of Internet of Things
The connectivity of devices to internet is known Internet of Things. There are carious electronic devices such as computer, smartphones, mobile phones, home appliances and network devices etc. are connected with IoT. This feature of Internet of Things facilitates its users to communicate and share information to remote locations in quick way. There various industries where IoT has become so popular such as healthcare, banking, agriculture, business, education etc. IoT provides various benefits to its users, but there are some complexities in it that enhance confusion of its users. Besides this, security and privacy issues of IoT are also influencing real life of users and it is necessary for developers to find out some ways to get rid of this security issues.
While analyzing about IoT we got to know some essential challenges of it that are discussed as below:
- Security
- Development
- Standards
- Privacy
Security
The maintenance of security of data that is stored on devices that are connected with IoT and transferring over internet, is an essential challenge for IoT developers. Hacking, DDoS, Malware attacks and data breaching etc. are awful cybercrime that cannot be ignored. The main impact of these security attacks is on databases, networks and systems of IoT users.
Development
It is promised by IoT to various emerging economies to deliver them effective social and economic benefits. But there are some areas where lack of market readiness, technical skills and policy requirements are found and due to this, development of IoT in these areas has become a challenge for IoT developers (Waher, 2017).
Standards
All connected devices to IoT follow their own standards to transfer data over network. Sometimes this thing causes network conflicts while transferring data because there is no open standards of IoT. It is challenging to make open standards by IoT, so that no conflicts can occur in data transmission.
Privacy
Besides security of data, privacy is also an important challenge of IoT. Privacy is related to maintain confidentiality of data for long time whether it is transferring over network or stored into a database. Cyber-criminals do all efforts to violate privacy of data through unauthorized access. Therefore, developers of IoT must focus on this challenge and resolve it.
IoT users are not only facing challenges of IoT but there are also some problems that are encountered by them. The main problems of IoT are discussed as below:
- The first problem of IoT is monitoring and tracking of devices. This is happened due to complex nature of IoT and wide size of applications. Besides this, these devices are virtually connected to IoT from different places.
- Second problem of IoT that is faced by users is that with IoT various devices are connected and all have their different data sets from different streams. Due to this problem occurs in management of data of devices (Tripathy, 2017).
The above discussed challenges and problems can be resolved by using some advanced technologies. Here we will discuss some related technologies that will be helpful to resolve security and privacy issues of IoT.
- Encryption is an essential technique to maintain security of data of different devices connected with IoT. By using this technique, data can be encrypted into unreadable form that is hard to understand by hackers.
- Network Security is also an important technique that can be used to maintain security and privacy of IoT and its connected devices. By using network monitoring tools, network activities can be monitored and if anything wrong happens then action can be taken accordingly (Olavsrud, 2017).
- Authentication techniques can also be used for maintaining security and privacy of devices that are connected with IoT. In case of authentication, biometrics, digital certificate techniques can be used.
Problems of Internet of Things
The above discussed related technologies of IoT can be used by its all users from different industries, because it is possible that above discussed challenges and problems of IoT can be encountered by them. Therefore to resolve these problems of IoT above discussed technologies should be used (McKinsey & Company, 2017).
As we have already discussed above that IoT has some complexities that cause confusion for IoT users. These are vague areas of IoT and we have found some queries of IoT users about these vague areas that are discussed as below:
Question 1: Which is most interesting thing of IoT?
Answer: The use of sensors in applications of Internet of Things is considered most important things of IoT. It will be helpful to sense infective areas of networks.
Question 2: Which factor has potential to increase effectiveness of IoT?
Answer: Interoperability is most important factor that enhance benefits of IoT. For creating programming of devices and sensors, interoperability is good (Prophet Thinking, 2017).
The critical discussed issues of IoT that are discussed in blog are privacy, security, development and standards. Due to these issues, users of IoT are facing varioud problems and developers of IoT should take care about these issues. Beside this issues, I would like to discuss about data breeching issue that has also become a challenge for IT developers to control. This is occurred due to lack of security of IoT devices and their frequent use by users for accessing information. The issues of high security risk and repetition of data are also noticed. This issue should also be taken into consideration by IoT developers and must be resolved (Roe, 2017).
An important issue that is not discussed in blog is regarding management of storage of large amount of information of devices that are connected with IoT. Every device has its own type of data and it must be managed properly in to databases, otherwise conflicts or security and privacy issues can occur. Besides this, increment in connectivity of devices will increase amount of data. This is a critical issue to consider. In this situation, IoT developers have found some ways to get rid of this problem such as they have made policies that what kind of data will be stored and what will be its duration. It means only important records of data will be stored into online databases and other data will be deleted after a particular interval of time (Rekleitis, Rizomiliotis, & Gritzalis, 2011).
The above discussed issues of IoT are putting impact on life of users in various ways that are discussed as below:
- Users of IoT are not more feel secure to use cloud devices that have multiple access from remote locations because it increases risk of security.
- Hacking or data breaching or unauthorized access of information from devices also impacts users in a way that there are chances to hack their personal and credit card information from databases. This information can be misused by hackers (com, 2017).
From this discussion we got to know that it is not so easy to use IoT and its applications at workplaces. Its challenges, problems and security and other issues should be in knowledge of users. In this report we have discussed about main challenges, problem, issues and technologies that can be helpful to get prevention from these issues. Therefore, these technologies should be used appropriately to get better outcomes from IoT. The knowledge about implementation of IoT applications is also important. So users should have basic knowledge about IoT implementation for handling their business activities and how privacy of data can be maintained in case of cyber-attacks (Misra, Maheswaran, & Hashmi, 2017).
Conclusion
At last we can say that all IT users and developers should understand importance of security and privacy of devices and its content that are connected with IoT and above discussed related technologies and other advanced security and privacy tools should be used. Hackers’ activities are increasing so it is necessary to be ready with anti-hacking security tools and techniques to control security issues. Otherwise the issues of hacking and data breaching will be increased and heavy loss of information can occur. Advanced technologies for security and privacy need to be developed to get better prevention.
References
Olavsrud, T. (2017). 5 Key Challenges Facing the Industrial Internet of Things. CIO. Retrieved 18 May 2017, from https://www.cio.com/article/2872574/it-industry/5-key-challenges-facing-the-industrial-internet-of-things.html
Prophet Thinking. (2017). Interoperability: The Challenge Facing the Internet of Things | Altimeter. Retrieved 18 May 2017, from https://www.prophet.com/thinking/2014/02/interoperability-the-challenge-facing-the-internet-of-things/
McKinsey & Company. (2017). The Internet of Things: Five critical questions. Retrieved 18 May 2017, from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/high-tech/our-insights/the-internet-of-things-five-critical-questions
Datamation.com.(2017). The Internet of Things: 7 Challenges – Datamation. Retrieved 18 May 2017, from https://www.datamation.com/data-center/the-internet-of-things-7-challenges.html
Roe, D. (2017). 7 Big Problems with the Internet of Things. CMSWire.com. Retrieved 18 May 2017, from https://www.cmswire.com/cms/internet-of-things/7-big-problems-with-the-internet-of-things-024571.php
Waher, P. Learning internet of things (1st ed.).
Rekleitis, E., Rizomiliotis, P., & Gritzalis, S. (2011). How to protect security and privacy in the IoT: a policy-based RFID tag management protocol. Security And Communication Networks, 7(12), 2669-2683. https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sec.400
Tripathy, B., & Anuradha, J. Internet of things (IoT) (1st ed.).
Misra, S., Maheswaran, M., & Hashmi, S. Security challenges and approaches in internet of things (1st ed.).