Vint Cerf: CS Programs Must Change To Adapt To Internet of Things

chicksdaddy (814965) writes "The Internet of Things has tremendous potential but also poses a tremendous risk if the underlying security of Internet of Things devices is not taken into account, according to Vint Cerf, Google's Internet Evangelist. Cerf, speaking in a public Google Hangout (video) on Wednesday, said that he's tremendously excited about the possibilities of an Internet of billions of connected objects. But Cerf warned that it necessitates big changes in the way that software is written. Securing the data stored on those devices and exchanged between them represents a challenge to the field of computer science – one that the nation's universities need to start addressing. Internet of Things products need to do a better job managing access control and use strong authentication to secure communications between devices."

Comments

Re:They can teach whatever they want.

[Cryacin]

This. A thousand times This. I have been in meetings where security has explicitly been regarded as irrelevant, where one way encrypting passwords from plaintext on the client is irrelevant, and where we can trust our employees to always do the right thing with all of our users passwords, and "what could they do with the passwords that is outside of our irrelevant application" was bandied around the room as acceptable.

They should not be teaching the importance of such things to CS students, but much rather to the MBA's and BBus students. It's not the knowledge of the need for security amongst those that build, but the desire to pay for it from Management.