InsightaaS: The Gartner Blog Network collects posts from across Gartner’s research community. In this post, Gartner research VP Earl Perkins asks three questions about security in the Internet of Things (IoT). One of his questions – regarding the potential for “denial of power” attacks on IoT devices – is thought provoking, both in context and in the minds of some of those who have left comments on the Gartner blog site.
Some of you no doubt noticed that Google announced their intention to buy a company known as Nest Labs for $3.2B U.S., one of their largest acquisitions ever. This blog isn’t about that acquisition, but it did get me to thinking about what such an acquisition means to our dialog on the security for the Internet of Things. It called to mind what is obvious in the way of concerns about securing a world of interconnected devices vs. what may not be obvious. I thought it would be appropriate to mention a few of the latter in the shadow of such a purchase. I realize that for many of you close to the industry, some of these concerns MAY already be obvious to you. If so, humor me so that I can point out some of them to the mainstream audience.
Concern #1 — For many devices in the IoT, programming and design is actually like a return to the ‘old’ days. While there are some similarities of IoT development to development and engineering for mobile devices (a lot in fact), many of these devices don’t have the user interface, the memory, the processing or the power you would find in a more general-purpose system like a tablet or smartphone…
Read the entire post: http://blogs.gartner.com/earl-perkins/2014/01/20/securing-the-internet-of-things-some-not-so-obvious-concerns/