4 Major Technical Challenges Facing IoT Developers

The Internet of Things (IoT) is taking the world by storm. The millions of connected sensors and smart devices that are being deployed on a daily basis in homes, offices, cities and even on our persons are creating unprecedented opportunities in cutting costs, reducing energy consumption, improving efficiency and customer services, and better understanding how we interact with our environment.

The IoT, hailed as one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of the tech industry, will soon be an inherent part of every aspect of our lives, from retail shops to hotels, to cars and airplanes and practically everything we interact with.

But this added utility comes with its own set of caveats and requirements, which need to be met and overcome with the proper solutions and approaches. Here are four challenges to expect in the future.

Security Challenges

IoT has already turned into a serious security concern that has drawn the attention of prominent tech firms and government agencies across the world. The hacking of baby monitors, smart fridges, Barbie dolls, drug infusion pumps, cameras and even assault rifles are portending a security nightmare being caused by the future of IoT. So many new nodes being added to networks and the internet will provide malicious actors with innumerable attack vectors and possibilities to carry out their evil deeds, especially since a considerable number of them suffer from security holes.

The more important shift in security will come from the fact that IoT will become more ingrained in our lives. Concerns will no longer be limited to the protection of sensitive information and assets. Our very lives and health can become the target of IoT hack attacks, as was shown in the hacking of pacemakers. Critical city infrastructure can also become a target, as the Ukraine power grid hack warned us last year.

There are many reasons behind the state of insecurity in IoT. Some of it has to do with the industry being in its “gold rush” state, where every vendor is hastily seeking to dish out the next innovative connected gadget before competitors do. Under such circumstances, functionality becomes the main focus and security takes a back seat.

Also, many IoT developers often come from an embedded systems programming background and are ignorant of the threats of IoT programming. They don’t necessarily have the knowhow and expertise to program for the hostile connected environment of the internet, and end up dishing out code that is reliable from a functionality perspective, but can easily be exploited remotely.

Scalability issues also contribute to the creation insecure IoT products. The fact is that many security solutions being used today have been created with generic computing devices in mind. IoT devices often lack the computational power, storage capacity and even proper operating system to be able to deploy such solutions.

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by Ben Dickson via SitePoint