7 Major Challenges with the Internet of Things for the Enterprise

Over the course of the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed from being cutting edge technology, to a household technology. It is estimated that by 2020, there will be over 50 billion connected devices.

Researchers are constantly analyzing weaknesses in the technology and are trying to find remedies. Without remedies, if the IoT has disconcerting issues, the companies connected are also equally at risk. The following are the seven major issues regarding IoT that connected enterprises need to address.

Restricted Internet

With the rate of cross border attacks on the rise, the World Economic Forum surmises that governments will soon break up the internet into national or regional segments, for safeguarding the economy and the government. This erection of barriers is a major problem as it affects the very concept of IoT and that of global connectivity, as content flow and transactions will become limited.

Cloud Attacks

Cyber security even today has much less resources, compared to the potential threat of cyber attacks. IoT cannot function seamlessly without all the data being stored in the cloud, and cloud service providers are automatically the prime targets for cyber-terrorism. A successful cloud attack on a single provider, can cause economic damage of $50 billion to $120 billion.

AI-Generated Malware

The prevalence of ransomware has risen 35 times in just the last year, and cloud service providers are prime targets. Just one weak point in their servers and security, can wreak havoc for government entities, hundreds of businesses, infrastructure and healthcare industries. We will soon witness AI-generated malware, created by automated weakness detection and complicated data analysis. AI will be leveraged for the creation of a new breed of polymorphic malware, which can avoid detection and cause irreparable damage.

Botnet Issues

Hackers can now access a wide attack surface, created by the millions of connected devices. The rise of Distributed Destruction of Service (DDoS) attacks is one of the major threats to IoT. A DDoS attack can launch a large number of not-so-well-protected consumer devices to attack a public infrastructure, and this happens via a highly coordinated misuse of the communication channels.

IoT botnets can cause unprecedented damage, and measures have to be taken to defend against such attacks.

Limitations of Artificial Intelligence

Big Data and machine learning, coupled with the incorporation of the correct algorithms, have enabled Artificial Intelligence to endure, but human intervention is necessary to understand which correlations surface purely by chance, and not due to actual predictions.

Low levels of Confidence

Both businesses and customers have major concerns regarding the security of data on IoT devices, and almost 90% of consumers fall under this category. They are concerned about hackers and data breaches and lack the confidence for there to be mainstream adoption of IoT.

Understanding IoT

The general masses do not understand yet, the changes that IoT is bringing to the regular lifestyle of ordinary people, and the true potential of this technology. Once there is mainstream adoption of IoT, acquisition and sensor costs will drop significantly, and businesses which were previously not viable, will finally flourish.