Bruce Schneier Calls for IoT Legislation, Argues The Internet Is Becoming One Giant Robot (linux.com)

"We're building a world-size robot, and we don't even realize it," security expert Bruce Schneier warned the Open Source Leadership Summit. As mobile computing and always-on devices combine with the various network-connected sensors, actuators, and cloud-based AI processing, "We are building an internet that senses, thinks, and acts." An anonymous reader quotes Linux.com: You can think of it, he says, as an Internet that affects the world in a direct physical manner. This means Internet security becomes everything security. And, as the Internet physically affects our world, the threats become greater. "It's the same computers, it could be the same operating systems, the same apps, the same vulnerability, but there's a fundamental difference between when your spreadsheet crashes, and you lose your data, and when your car crashes and you lose your life," Schneier said...

"I have 20 IoT-security best-practices documents from various organizations. But the primary barriers here are economic; these low-cost devices just don't have the dedicated security teams and patching/upgrade paths that our phones and computers do. This is why we also need regulation to force IoT companies to take security seriously from the beginning. I know regulation is a dirty word in our industry, but when people start dying, governments will take action. I see it as a choice not between government regulation and no government regulation, but between smart government regulation and stupid government regulation."

Comments

Professionalize computer science

[VikingNation]

Many engineers who design bridges, roads, buildings, power systems, etc. are required to get a proefessional engineering certificate. There is no equivalent for computer scientist in the United States. Until there is liability for poor designs and implementation there will be changes to improve quality and security.

Re: Easy fix

[Anonymous Coward]

That can be done now. Give it a few years, you won't be able to buy anything that is not made to be connected. Peer pressure, obsolescence and convenient buyback programs will take care of the reticent. It's a done deal.

Re: Easy fix

[TWX]

Half of the water heaters at Home Depot have electronic control panels, and a good chunk of those have WiFi capability.

Do you trust Rheem or AO Smith to have enough IT security people available to know how to set the default state of these controls so that they're not exploitable?

IOT's Creators Are Clueless - Totally Clueless

[dryriver]

I had a 2 hour conversation last year with an IOT devices engineer who works for a multi-billion dollar Japanese Corporation. They guy didn't think Privacy was important or at risk at all through IOT devices. "Every home will have many of them soon" he said. He thought that realtime 3D face recognition - CCTV networks being able to identify you ANYWHERE IN PUBLIC with great accuracy even if you are not facing the camera, have grown a beard or are wearing a baseball cap - was a great step forward in human technological development. They guy kept talking about "new markets, new profits, a great future for our company". He literally DID NOT CARE what these technologies mean for people's Privacy. Every time I voiced even mild concerns about what these surveillance capable technologies might do to people's privacy, he acted terribly *shocked*. Apparently the corporation he works sees great profits in building IOT, face recog tech & other surveillance capable tech, and my bringing up concerns about them was something he was - wait for it - "uncomfortable with". =) This is what IOT is - faceless, nameless engineers crapping all over other people's lives because the companies that employ them expect a new XX Billion Dollar a year market from them.