A bipartisan contingent of senators from the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has requested a hearing on the topic of the Internet of Things before the end of the year, according to published reports. Lawmakers Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) wrote to the committee chairman, Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and ranking member,John Thune (R-S.D.), requesting “a general oversight and information-gathering hearing” on the IoT before the end of 2014, citing concerns about consumer privacy and security, as well as potential government applications of IoT technology. IoT technologies including wearables and connected health products represent an “expanding industry of connected products,” the congressmen and women wrote. “The proliferation of connected products is sparking a number of important policy questions,” the October 20th letter reads. “The number and the scope of these issues demands our prompt attention so we can better understand the technologies and explore how best to preserve America’s global leadership […]
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You’re Doing NAT Wrong! One Million SOHO Routers Vulnerable
A vulnerability in more than 1 million small office and home office (or SOHO) routers makes them potentially vulnerable to remote attacks that could expose private internal network traffic to prying eyes, according to a warning posted by the firm Rapid7.
Is IoT Innovation Outpacing Our Ability To Keep It Safe?
GigaOm has an interesting, high-level piece that looks at the issue of law, liability and the Internet of Things. The article takes off from a discussion at the Download event in New York City earlier this month, wondering whether adoption of Internet of Things technologies like wearables is starting to run far ahead of society’s ability to manage them. Specifically: is the pace of technology innovation outstripping the ability of our legal system to reign in excess and protect public safety and civil liberties? On the list of ‘what-if’s’ are some familiar questions: How to assign liability. (“If one of Google’s automated cars crashes, is it the fault of the driver or Google?”) Read more Security Ledger coverage of Internet of Things here. What responsibility to users have to take advantage of safety features in connected products? (Does a parent’s failure to password-protect a baby monitor change the manufacturer’s liability when and […]
Convergence of M2M and IoT signals Major Cultural Shift
Required reading for Monday: TechCrunch has a nice little explainer article by @ArtyomAstafurov (of DeviceHive) that talks about the evolution of machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies into the Internet of Things and how the two technology trends are now indistinguishable- and are poised to cause large-scale disruption. To quote Astafurov: “IoT separates itself from M2M not only in the simplicity and quantity of devices involved, but also by how the devices communicate with each other…Whereas M2M tends to rely on point-to-point exchanges between individual devices, IoT communications involve dispersed devices sharing data through a central server, resulting in exponentially more data based on the relationships and patterns that emerge.” And the IoT will drive massive investment in products and technologies that can capture, aggregate and analyze consumer data. This will be akin to the kind of investment corporations put into ERP (enterprise resource planning) tools a decade ago, he says. Though the focus of IoT right […]
Obama Uses Executive Order To Push Chip and Pin
Add data security to the long list of issues on which U.S. President Barack Obama has resorted to unilateral action in order to push the government forward on a crucial matter. On Friday, President Obama signed an Executive Order directing the government to require the use of so-called “chip and PIN” technology for any newly issued or existing government debit and credit cards. The Order was intended to make the federal government “lead by example in securing transactions and sensitive data,” the White House said in a statement. The new BuySecure Initiative will provide consumers with more tools to secure their financial future by assisting victims of identity theft, improving the Government’s payment security as a customer and a provider, and accelerating the transition to stronger security technologies and the development of next-generation payment security tools. The Order launches a new initiative dubbed “BuySecure” intended to “drive the market towards more secure payment systems” […]