IoT and Its Impact on Infrastructure and Governance

The Internet of Things (IoT) revolutionizes how governments, organizations, and citizens interact with the physical world. This wave of interconnected devices promises a transformative infrastructure and governmental operations shift. However as the reach of IoT grows, the implications — especially related to security — become even more profound.

The “Internet of Things”, or IOT: we’ve all heard the term, but what does it really mean? More importantly, how do we secure all of these … “things”?

Ah, the good old days, when things were simple. When there were a known number of devices on any government network, and the federal IT pro had a complete understanding of how to secure those devices.

I believe that the Internet of Things (IoT) is a popular topic, in part, because its science-fiction becoming science-fact.  IoT promises all of the conveniences of “The Jetsons” without having to push buttons, while threatening to produce the surveillance states of “1984” or “Minority Report”.  Unfortunately, it most likely will give rise to the annoying doorways from Douglas Adam’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, that have micro-transactional charges per use and in-app purchases that “allow” the door to open after 5pm.  For our

On October 18th, DLT competed at a fun and spirited “Demo Jam” contest during the Red Hat’s public sector annual meeting at Kingsmill.  The demo had to be live, no longer than eight minutes and had to showcase at least one Red Hat product.  We included nine Red Hat products, plus quite a few other technologies, taking a lighthearted look at the internet of things.  Against stiff competition and by audience selection, we won first place!  Unfortunately, the audio on any recording of the event itself was drowned out by cheers, tambourines and cow bells,

The 2017 “infrastructure report card” from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) painted a grim portrait of our nation’s bridges, transit systems, aviation, and more, scoring an overall “D” for “poor” or “at risk”. Unfortunately, not much has changed since the last report was released in 2013.

When you think about smart cities what springs to mind? Perhaps it’s a city app that lets you know the location of available parking spots or a transit company that can automatically re-route buses away from congested areas based on a network of fleet- or city-wide sensors. In reality, the definition of a smart city varies, depending on who you talk to.

Hackers are ruthless in their persistence and fortitude. It can take weeks or months for them to gather intelligence on your IT vulnerabilities, penetrate your network, and exfiltrate your precious data. But they know, and statistics prove this, that, for the most part, their victims have no idea that their network infrastructure is under attack – until it’s too late.

The Cyber Shield Act, commissioned by Senator Ed Markey, recommends the establishment of a voluntary program to institute uniform cybersecurity and data benchmarks for consumer devices. The goal of the bill is to improve consumer decision making from the point of purchase, standardized by industry and maintained by manufacturers – similar to an EPA energy rating on appliances, or NHTSA safety rating on automobiles.

It’s clear that smart technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT) are the future of our communities. But, is your agency ready for the billions – soon to be trillions – of sensors and devices connected to one another that will transform our society?

The risks of a breach or attack, particularly to vulnerable network endpoints, are worrying and costly.  Impacts include: