technology trends Internet of Things – heaven or hell? There is talk that the Internet of Things is a saviour that will solve everything from welfare problems to environmental degradation and revolutionise people’s everyday life. Even in the security industry, IoT is seen as the path to value-added services that will open up for a new growing The number of connected devices is booming, but at the same time, the last year has shown that IoT is vulnerable to hacker attacks. James McHale, Senior Analyst at the market analysis company Memoori, believes that education and faster standardisation are the solution to cyber security problems. ”There is technology in order to make the devices safer, we just need to do it more efficiently”, he says. By Henrik Söderlund market. However, during the last year, the vision of salvation has become clouded due to frequent and serious cyber attacks. At the Sectech security show in Oslo, security professionals gathered to hear three speakers discuss IoT and security. Detektor has summarised the main points. James McHale, Memoori: There is a great variation in predictions about how many units will be connected in the future. Some market research companies claim that there will be 20 billion connected devices by 2020, others believe there will be 50 billion. This means the CAGR will be more than 30 per cent and regardless of who is right, James McHale claims it is extremely important that IoT should not only be about collecting data, but converting it into information that adds value to the end customers. ”We believe that smarter devices at the edge and platforms, in order be able to present this collected data to people, will allow us to ultimately move to a situation where we can provide valuable insights to clients and that is really important”, he says. Problems with cyber attacks Over the past year it has become clear that many IoT devices are poorly protected and easy to hack. James Mchale says: “There is a big problem with IoT and that is cyber security. We have seen several cases where both security cameras and other products have been used in DDoS attacks on major websites like Twitter and Spotify. This was done with a malware called Mirai, which basically scanned the internet looking for devices that were poorly protected James McHale, Senior Analyst at the market analysis company Memoori. ”We can reach a new level” and used default settings”. He also stresses that the physical security industry must focus on solving security problems and provide safer and more robust solutions. The technical solutions are already available. IoT in smart buildings and the percentage of products in those buildings that are connected to the internet. Video surveillance products are most common: 54 per cent of them are online, followed by 33 per cent of the access control systems, 30 per cent of the building automation systems and 29 per cent of the lighting systems. The market for IoT in buildings is expected to almost double from 2017 to 2021. “I believe that the Internet of Things fundamentally will change the way we design and manage buildings. I also believe that the buildings will shape our behaviour. We will no longer say that a building will be great if only occupants know how to use it, but that a building will be great if it understands its occupants”, says James McHale. He argues that those who use a building want working environments that embrace technology and they want it to operate smoothly. “It may not be reasonable to believe that every smart building should be designed purely for its occupants, but that does not mean we should not strive towards that goal and if it is done, then the return on investment will increase”, says James McHale. Focus on value-adding Big data and cloud-based software Back doors Another problem that has attracted a lot of attention lately is the so-called back doors in security cameras. This was highlighted in the last issue of the Detektor magazine. The Chinese camera manufacturer Hikvision has been accused of having back doors in their cameras, which would make it possible for the Chinese government to take part of video footage from cameras (but no evidence has been presented and Hikvision has called the allegations baseless). James McHale believes this may have negative consequences for Hikvision and it will make it more difficult for the company to sell surveillance cameras to government projects around the world. However, he also believes that Hikvision is aware of the situation and is good at producing cheap cameras with high quality, and this will continue to make them attractive on the market. A new way to look at buildings James McHale has scrutinised services will occupy an important part of the future of smart buildings. According to James McHale, the value will be about 32 billion dollars in 2021. It equals an annual growth rate of more than 25 per cent. At the same time, the global data volume will grow nearly 40 per cent annually from 16.2 zettabytes in 2017 to 60 zettabytes in 2021. It is important to point out that despite increasing urbanisation, and thus a great demand for construction, 8 per cent of today’s buildings are estimated to still look the same by 2050. ”It means that we must not only build better and smarter buildings, but also that we need to think smarter in terms of buildings that already exist”, says James McHale. He believes that it is important to focus on outcomes rather than outputs. Outcomes refers to the value or contribution that the products or services will bring to customers and users, while output refers to the actual products or services themselves. ”It is IoT that will give us the platform to collect and analyse data so we can measure and validate the outcomes. I think that is really important in order to move smart buildings forward”, James McHale concludes. Security News Every Day – www. securityworldhotel.com 14 • d etekto r internati onal