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Does IoT Data Need Special Regulation?

Posted by samzenpus on from the new-rules dept.

dkatana writes: As part of the UK's Smart Meter Implementation Programme, Spain's Telefonica is deploying a M2M solution, using its own proprietary network, to collect and transmit data from 53 million gas and electricity smart meters. The most troubling issue is that the UK government awarded the contract to a private telecom that uses a proprietary network rather than to an independent organization that uses freely available spectrum and open source solutions. Those Smart Meters are supposed to be in operation for more than three decades, and rely on a network that can cease to exist. On top of that, the network, running proprietary protocols, can be hacked, and "will be hacked". Only Telefonica will be able to fix it.

4 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. open source? by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think you can rely on any platform to be around for 30 years, even if it's open source.
    Some platforms have lasted that long, but trying to guess which platforms will last and which won't is not the reason to choose open source.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:open source? by Threni · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You've got it backwards. If you say up front "we're only interested in open source solutions" then only people with open source solutions, or people prepared to create one, will enter. There's absolutely no reason to do non open-source software except to attempt to make more money out of something but one company making money isn't the only reason these systems are designed and created. It's better for everyone if it's easy/possible for other people/companies to be able to continue running a system when the original company no longer exists, or has changed its focus.

    2. Re:open source? by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your comment is a perfect illustration of the saying, Hindsight is 20/20.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re: open source? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Speaking (anon) as somebody who is supporting a decades old government contract and seeing how many vendor fucks are given once those contracts are signed; I can tell you guaranteed income is not the same thing as guaranteed support. We haven't patched those systems since Debian Lenny.