Edward Snowden and the Downside to the Industrial Internet …

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the use of Internet of Things technologies by industrial organizations to deliver better performance and enhance competitive advantage not only in an individual facility, but across an industrial organizations supply chain and throughout its value network.

There have been many articles forecasting the explosive growth of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Without a doubt, IIoT things industrial smart devices that connect to the Internet and are able to collect useful data will greatly outnumber people by many times within a decade. When one considers that IIoT things can include a companys transportation assets, industrial equipment, the products made, and the containers that carry products across a supply chain, it is easy to see why this explosive growth is inevitable.

Cyber security tops the list when it comes to challenges for the Industrial Internet of Things. When one thinks of a hacker getting into a system and shutting down a utility, for example, it is obvious that the consequences of an IIoT security breach could be dire. And the IIoT makes this problem so much greater. Hackers need only a tiny tear in the security fabric and they can get in and cause harm. And as those connected devices grow exponentially, so do the entry points.

Key technologies that can be employed to help secure the IIoT including Network Access Control, Device Security, Encryption, and Industrial Protocol Firewall solutions. But as a colleague, Max Parnell (on the IT Team at ARC), pointed out at a Christmas Party, part of the solution will be based on regulation. And those regulations need to reflect how society balances security and privacy.

Max pointed me to a blog by Robert Hansen, written by one of the top dogs of internet security. Hansen points out that we can structure the Internet to insure anonymity or accountability, but not both. If everything on the Internet could be attributed and tracked back to people, you would have complete accountability. If you knew the packet you sent would be tagged with the information necessary for someone to track you down, youd be extremely unlikely to commit any crimes using the Internet.

On the flip side, 100% attribution is terrible for privacy when youre not doing anything illegal, or if you are a political dissident. The very last thing our forefathers wanted when they were talking amongst themselves in pubs on the East coast, considering creating a new nation, was attribution. They saw fit to write amendments to the constitution to limit unlawful search and seizures, and to allow freedom of speech.

Hansen made the point that as a younger man he would have chosen attribution and security. But that I would now tell my younger self to look beyond security, and really contemplate what a completely secure society would look like.

Ive got to say, when I think about tracking down pedophiles or gun runners, it is easy to side with attribution and security. But in light of the Edward Snowden revelations, and the scope of government surveillance of everyday citizens, my older self is not nearly so sure that is the right path.

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Edward Snowden and the Downside to the Industrial Internet ...