M2M

The Internet of Things has an Infrastructure Problem

In-brief: will the development of the Internet of Things stall because of a lack of investment in supporting wireless infrastructure? A panel at a recent conference warned that it is possible. 

connected-vehicles

Cyber Lemons: Lawsuit alleges Hackable Cars Pose Risks to Consumers

  In-brief: A lawsuit filed in California charges U.S. automakers with endangering their customers by failing to protect ‘connected vehicle’ features from cyber attack. 

Have we been wrong about the Internet of Things all along?

I’m just slogging through all the articles I marked “to read” but never got around to during the relax-o-frenzy that is the holiday season. One of the better ones I’ve found comes from the Web site Techbitzz.com. On December 31, they ran a nice and succinct write up that addresses one of the most confusing nomenclature problems in the technology world today: the differences between “machine-to-machine” (or M2M) technology and the “Internet of Things” (or IoT). As the article notes, the tendency these days is to just conflate “M2M” and “IoT” – as if the latter is just a newer, cooler term for the former. But that’s not the case. In fact: the two terms refer to very different things. According to the article: “M2M can be defined in simple terms as, ‘Machines’ (can be a sensor, meter, valve etc)  using network resources (can comprise of core telecom network, back-end […]

Cisco Internet of Everything Opportunity

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 […]

White House Cyber Chief: JP Morgan Underscores Critical Infrastructure Risk

The White House’s cyber security czar, Michael Daniel, said the Obama Administration is deeply concerned about the reported hack of systems belonging to banking giant JP Morgan Chase & Co. but sees the incident as part of a larger trend of attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure. Asked about the targeted attack against JP Morgan and other banks and financial institutions, Daniel said that the White House was concerned, but not surprised by the incident. “We have watched for several years the trend of malicious actors in cyber try to figure out how to target critical infrastructure,” he said. “Financial services is critical infrastructure.” The White House was concerned that a major U.S. bank would fall victim to hackers, but sees it in the context of a “broad trend,” rather than an isolated incident, he said. Speaking with Michael Farrell, the Cybersecurity Editor at Christian Science Monitor, Daniel hit on many of the now-common talking […]