Bar from that tech which spawned from initially being developed for the military industry, most tech is developed as a result of a bunch of peoples’ desire to make our lives a little easier and make some good money for themselves, of course. If you think that’s where it ends however, then you need to get with the programme…

At this point in the development and evolution of the human race, it’s all about big data. Big data is where the value lies, which is why if you don’t log into your Facebook account for a few days in a row you get a text message enticing you back by perhaps notifying you all about what your friends are up to online. For as long as you are living out your life in the digital space, the data you willingly give out about key aspects of your life is harvested and sold, period. Businesses need big data to connect with their customers and give them what they need. Business intelligence is connected to this area, with businesses needing to know what big data vs business intelligence can mean for how they function.

The data is sold to advertisers whose intentions are perhaps just to make money out of you by predicting what you’re likely to buy and then trying to sell it to you. So that’s the risk that’ll come into play with the internet of things. The intentions around a chip being implanted in your stomach to monitor where you’re short nutritionally are initially very good ones in that your connected fridge could perhaps automatically order whatever food you need to replenish the required missing nutrients, to be delivered by a drone perhaps, all without you having to do anything.

The problem with the connection points that exist between those connected items is that they can be breached and used for sinister activities, like someone tracking your movements perhaps or accessing your sensitive information, like your medical data. However, there are things that could help with this, such as edge computing. What this means is that edge native applications keep data processing local to other edge devices, only sending information to the cloud or to a business’ central database as is necessary. As a result, there is a serious reduction of sensitive information that is being exchanged across the network at any one time, especially when you compare this to cloud-native applications that continuously transmit data across networks.

These are security risks we’ll have to worry about when the Internet of Things (IOT) becomes a standardised part of our lives though.