Yes, two Internet of Things posts in one day. This post will look at two stories that have emerged over the last day and a half.
One being that Google acquired Nest and the other that The Internet of Things is already getting hacked.
MediaPost covered why Google wanted Nest, in their article “The Internet of Things is out of the Nest”
Observers yesterday were pondering why Google “wants a $3.2 billion thermostat?” as Lex’s Robert Armstrong asked Financial Times reporter Joseph Cotterill about the company’s purchase of Nest Labs Monday — knowing full well that his answer would delve into the huge potential of “The Internet of Things.”
Cotterill responds with two cautionary words: “Internet fridge” circa 1998.
“Samsung and LG would sell you these refrigerators which would tell you when your milk was running out, as if you were somehow incapable of looking into [it] yourself,” Cotterill reminds us. “And so that kinda really bombed.”
The difference today is that the market is much bigger and wider and smarter than it was when those devices were introduced.
“The networking giant Cisco predicts a world where 50 billion devices could be connected to the Internet by 2020,” writes Avi Itzkovitch in the September issue of Ux Magazine. “Collectively, this Internet of Things will be able to provide cloud-enabled experiences that could profoundly change many aspects of everyday life, both in and out of the home.”
Read that full article here
Read Write did a post about an hour ago entitled: “The Internet Of Things Has Been Hacked, And It’s Turning Nasty” This article highlights that amongst all the hype and potential, we better have people on top of securing all these sensor and controllers. A lot of people need to get up to speed on this stuff and fast as a lot of bad can possibly come from IOT no matter how great John Chambers (Cisco) thinks it is.
From the article:
Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Bad guys have already hijacked up to 100,000 devices in the Internet of Things and used them to launch malware attacks, Internet security firm Proofpoint said on Thursday.
It’s apparently the first recorded large-scale Internet of Things hack. Proofpoint found that the compromised gadgets—which included everything from routers and smart televisions to at least one smart refrigerator—sent more than 750,000 malicious emails to targets between December 26, 2013 and January 6, 2014.
The hack came to light over the relatively quiet holiday period when a security researcher at Proofpoint noticed a spike in thousands of malicious messages sent from a range of IP addresses she didn’t recognize, David Knight, a Proofpoint executive in charge of information security products, told me in an interview.
Curious, she began pinging the devices and soon realized that they weren’t PCs, the usual platform for launching this sort of attack. Instead, many were otherwise unidentified devices running a standard version of Linux. Pinging one device brought up a login screen that : Welcome To Your Fridge. She typed in a default password—something like “admin” or “adminadmin,” Knight says—and suddenly had access to the heart of someone’s kitchen.
“When left home alone, cats spend 22 percent of their time looking out of windows, 8 percent climbing chairs and 6 percent sleeping. A researcher collecting data for a pet manufacturer figured that out by fitting 50 cats with camera collars that took pictures every 15 minutes. That was four years ago. Now the animal testing phase is over: The Internet of Things is about to turn people into the equivalent of those experimental cats, with more sophisticated tracking devices.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-15/is-your-thermostat-spying-on-you-.html
All Things Considered on Public Radio did a story the other day on the Internet of Things and I found it very interesting. There is no question that this is where technology is heading. Soon your heating system will know when to turn on as you drive home for work, with your car communicating with your boiler. There are a million examples of the internet of things to come. The question is how fast will it evolve and become commonplace. Based on what I’ve witnessed in the last 40 years of technology, my guess is much sooner than later! Mike and Ray, keep up the great work…this blog is must read for anyone with a clue in this niche domaining industry!
one rule: if it is connected it can be hacked.
people can hack your pacemaker, your refrigerator, your car.
even today it is possible to hack a plane and it can be so easy that it surprises me how we don’t have more planes falling from the sky…
Domainers should jump on some IOT related .com names. Its still relatively early in the game. Remember, techies (for the most part) aren’t domainers . Think outside the box…read up and seize the moment.
The First World is already sensor-driven. I did jump on some “IOT” “IOE” domains some time ago, and have turned down offers. Trying to figure out which one I’ll develop. I didn’t think these domains had much value until Cisco’s purchase of “IOE” .
Steven, glad you held onto them. I just started picking some up spring of last year. There were others I missed out on because I waited too long, not for sale anymore, taken, etc.
For me IOE seems more natural but I think IOT will be the acronym that is primarily used. However its not just the acronym itself its realizing what can be done using this technology and snatching up names that you can build business on (or that others will need before they realize they need it). Its how IOT will enhance everything from consumer electronics to. leisure, travel, communications, etc. THAT is where you can score big as domain investor.
Steven, Google is in it….Cisco is in it (like you mentioned above), IBM. And the Chinese have been buying iot .com names like they are going out of style.
Just because we are talking, the other niche I’m big into wireless power.. HUGE market coming for that..HUGE. but that’s for another post 🙂