Indira Ozdoeva

E-skills by Erik Pollet2018 - 2019

INTERNET OF
THINGS
Table of Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 2
1. What effect will the internet of things (IoT) have on our daily lives? .......................... 2
2. Who is going to benefit from it? ................................................................................ 3
3. What do you regard as the most interesting use of the Internet of Things? ................ 4
4. What will happen in terms of job losses and skills as IoT makes devices and robots
more intelligent? .............................................................................................................. 5
5. What’s the biggest risk associated with the Internet of Things? ................................. 5
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 7
Reflection ......................................................................................................................... 7
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 8

1
Introduction
The Internet of Things (or IoT) is a system of interrelating computing devices, mechanical
and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers
(UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or
human-to-computer interaction.
In this report, I will be answering to five questions that seemed interesting to me.
1. What effect will the Internet of Things (IoT) have on our daily lives?
2. Who is going to benefit from it?
3. What do you regard as the most interesting use of the Internet of Things?
4. What will happen in terms of job losses and skills as IoT makes devices and robots
more intelligent?
5. What’s the biggest risk associated with the Internet of Things?

1. What effect will the internet of things (IoT) have on our daily
lives?
IoT will have a drastic effect on waste management. With the seamless integration of light,
heat and air conditioning that reacts to you, a lot of money could be saved on those bills.
For food, anything you don't eat in your fridge will be recorded so you can examine trends
and patterns.

We have our daily commute. Imagine you left your home without your house key - your
house would tell you this. Our cars will anticipate our approach and open themselves via a
sensor in our phones. Intelligent traffic detection will allow our device to direct us to the
shortest route to work/ home. Taxi services for business meetings will be planned according
to your calendar - synced with your smartphone. (Parakh, 2018)

It is going to make a lot of things easier and comfortable for us. But in return going to make
us overly possessive about our things, lazy heads and too much glued to our phones or
computers. Human behavior evolving with technology is equally important. (Kamat, 2019)

2
 2. Who is going to benefit from it?
Many industries are adopting Internet of Things solutions technology to improve their
existing systems. Let’s consider some of the major industries to understand its needs closely:
 Transportation Industry
Much need for a smart system to manage resources in right ways. For example: keep track of
inventory, accidents, congestions, weather conditions, …
 Medical Industries
Medical Industries need to be more advanced and hence they are already using IoT based
tools. With the help of these tools, the doctors can monitor the patient remotely and give
drugs on the basis of tracked in formation.
 Manufacturing
The idea behind using IoT tools in the manufacturing industry is to attach sensors to their
devices and collect data from customers. This data can be used to guide users for predictive
maintenance of the assets.
 Hospitality
To improve traveling experience of customers with IoT, hospitality industry is also optimizing
IoT experiences to make their services more comfortable for guests. In hotels for example,
face detection id is provided to the customers so that hotel staffs can recognize the customer
before their arrival.
(Singh, 2018)
In my opinion, IoT is most vital for the medical industry. There might be a chance that by
tracking the use and patterns, a medicine will be “invented” (I strongly believe there are
medicines which are not shared with the public) against certain diseases like cancer or aids.

3
 3. What do you regard as the most interesting use of the Internet
of Things?

Figure 1

Smart Home – equipped with smart thermostats, smart appliances and connected heating,
lighting and electronic devices can be controlled remotely via computers, smartphones or
other mobile devices. Personally, this is the most interesting use. Imagine you had a long
and stressful day, how amazing would it be if your water has already run and you can take a
bath as soon as you get home from work or school?

Smart City – IoT sensors and deployments, such as smart streetlights and smart meters, can
help alleviate traffic, conserve energy, monitor and address environmental concerns, and
improve sanitation. I really think this might be the future to help out our little planet.
Climate change is becoming a bigger every day and everyone is aware of it, I hope. It is a
way to reduce pollution and provide for future generations.

(Rouse, Internet of Things (IoT), 2019)

4
 4. What will happen in terms of job losses and skills as IoT makes
devices and robots more intelligent?
For this question, I am making the link to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer
systems. These systems include learning, reasoning and self-correction. (Rouse, AI (Artificial
Intelligence), 2018)
A two-year study from McKinsey Global Institute suggests that by 2030, intelligent agents
and robots could eliminate as much as 30 percent of the world’s human labor.
McKinsey reckons that, depending upon various adoption scenarios, automation will
displace between 400 and 800 million jobs by 2030, requiring as many as 375 million people
to switch job categories entirely. (McClelland, 2018)

I recall going to this seminar in the first semester organized by HULT International Business
School. Terrence Tse gave a lecture about Artificial Intelligence. I remember him saying that
Artificial Intelligence most likely will take over a part of human labor but that it will never
fully take over human labor.
He explained that any system has too many exceptions which a robot can’t adapt too, but
humans can.
Leaving this seminar, my heart was more at ease. I really worry about the future of our
generation, but I also believe that even this problem contains a solution.

5. What’s the biggest risk associated with the Internet of Things?

 Malicious endpoints
o The Mirai botnet attack
On October 12, 2016 Mirai took advantage of insecure IoT devices in a simple but clever
way. It scanned big blocks of the internet, then attempted to log in default passwords. This
way it was able to amass a botnet army. It left much of the internet inaccessible on the U.S.
East Coast. (Fruhlinger, 2018)
Botnet is a network of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled as
a group without the owner’s knowledge.

o The Senrio devil’s ivy attack

Devil’s Ivy is a security vulnerability that when exploited enables an attacker to access a
video feed and deny the owner access to the feed. In July 2017 the security firm Senrio
uncovered a stack buffer overflow vulnerability in the open source third-party toolkit
gSOAP, which is used by millions of IoT devices, including security cameras from numerous
vendors.
Senrio dubbed the vulnerability “Devil’s Ivy” because, like the Devil’s Ivy plant, the attack is
able to spread quickly and is nearly impossible to completely eradicate once it has started to
spread. (Stroud, 2019)

5
Below, you can find an infographic that explains more about the dangers and states facts
and numbers.

6
Conclusion
To conclude, IoT is already happening and is changing lives. I don’t doubt that IoT will be the
future. There’s a lot of benefits to it for everyone.
I would just like to advise people who want to buy one of these IoT systems, to also acquire
a strong and safe security firewall to protect your privacy.

Reflection
Writing this assignment has made me realize how far we already are with technology.
It taught me what all the possibilities are, what the future will look like. IoT and AI are very
actual topics and there’s always the discussion about what our future will look like in terms
of employment. I can put myself at ease now, knowing robotization will never fully take
over human labor because there are simply too many system malfunctions or exceptions.
The most important thing I learned though is to always protect my privacy when using
systems like these. People often forget to do so and find themselves in great trouble later.
You always need to inform yourself about every detail when doing something new.

7
Bibliography
Fruhlinger, J. (2018, March 9). The Mirai botnet explained: How teen scammers and CCTV
cameras almost brought down the internet. Retrieved from CSO:
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3258748/the-mirai-botnet-explained-how-teen-
scammers-and-cctv-cameras-almost-brought-down-the-internet.html
Kamat, H. (2019, January 13). How will the Internet of Things affect our dailiy lives?
Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/How-will-the-Internet-of-Things-
affect-our-daily-lives
McClelland, C. (2018, August 17). The Impact of Artificial Intelligence - Widespread Job
Losses. Retrieved from IT for all: https://www.iotforall.com/impact-of-artificial-
intelligence-job-losses/
Parakh, M. (2018, January 18). How will the Internet of Things affect our daily lives?
Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/How-will-the-Internet-of-Things-
affect-our-daily-lives
Rouse, M. (2018, August). AI (Artificial Intelligence). Retrieved from Search Enterprises AI:
https://searchenterpriseai.techtarget.com/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence
Rouse, M. (2019, March). Internet of Things (IoT). Retrieved from IoT Agenda:
https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT
Rouse, M. (2019, March). Internet of Things (IoT) . Retrieved from IoT Agenda:
https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT
Singh, H. (2018, January 31). The Internet of Things: IoT Solutions and its Benefits. Retrieved
from Customer Think: http://customerthink.com/the-internet-of-things-iot-
solutions-and-its-benefits/
Stroud, F. (2019). Devil's Ivy. Retrieved from Webopedia:
https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/devils-ivy.html