Internet of things – how to protect your fridge?

Now it has finally happened: someones fridge participated into massive email spam attack!

Fridge in the picture does not have anything to do with the fridge mentioned in the text
Fridge in the picture does not have anything to do with the fridge mentioned in the text

The internet of things is predicted to be one of the top tech trends in 2014. Internet connected devices is estimated to be doubling over coming 5 years. I rather doubt that prediction. After hearing about this misbehaving fridge i checked a bit around to see what kind of gear is available. It is surprisingly easy to find smaller and smaller programmable devices, which actually are able to run web server. These devices are easy to embed to any given home or office device, so maybe the speed will be even faster than predicted. In example our office printers can automatically order maintenance when ever they “feel” like needing one. Why wouldn’t your car do the same? Many cars already know when maintenance is needed, only thing lacking is the internet connection.

Secure access and authentication are the things lacking behind, while new appliances emerge into market. As this fridge example points out, there are too many badly protected devices (TV’s, routers, etc) already connected into internet that we will see plenty of similar situations.

Many users don’t care too much even about their mobile phones or computers so it will be interesting to see how they will react to misbehaving home or office devices. Does it slower down the adoption of embedded internet technology or will internet of things spread out even faster? Do you care what your fridge does during its free time?

 

 

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