Internet Of Things - Research Paper Example

INTERNET OF THINGS By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date Table of Contents INTERNET OF THINGS 1 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Topic Description 4 Stakeholders and Analysis method 4 Ethical Issues 5 Legal Issues 6 Social Issues 7 Cultural Issues 7 Organisational Issues 8 Resolutions 9 Conclusion 9 References 10 Internet of Things Introduction According to Mattern and Floerkemeier (2010, p.242), the Internet of Things epitomises a vision wherein there is an expansion of the Internet in the real world embracing different types of objects. Besides, there is no more disconnection between physical objects and the virtual world, but the objects can be controlled remotely and double up as Internet services’ physical access points. Without a doubt, the IoT is truly making computing ubiquitous, and is also offering enormous opportunities for individuals as well as the economy. Still, IoT involves risks and brings about immense social, ethical, and technical challenge. The IoT vision is based in the conviction that the progressive advancement in information technology, communications and microelectronics as witnessed globally, will continue in the future. In the contemporary world, ubiquitous sensing facilitated by technologies such as Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) have become dominant in many areas, and has consequently offered the capability to measure as well as comprehend environmental indicators. In essence, these devices proliferation in a communicating–actuating network generates the IoT, wherein actuators as well as sensors combine flawlessly with the surrounding environment allowing information to be shared through platforms. Driven by the latest adaptation of different enabling wireless technologies like actuator nodes, embedded sensor and RFID tags, Gubbi et al. (2013, p.1645) posit that the IoT has popped out from its infancy. For this reason, IoT is considered to be the next ground-breaking technology that will transform the Internet into a Future Internet that is fully integrated. Topic Description The Internet of Things (IoT) is a platform wherein people or objects are offered with unique identifiers as well as the capability of transferring data over a network devoid of the need for human-to-computer or human-to-human interaction (Mattern & Floerkemeier, 2010, p.242). The Internet of Things has developed from the convergence of the Internet, micro-electromechanical systems as well as wireless technologies. For this reason, IoT has increased the connectedness of things and people on incredible magnitude. The IoT adoption in the market has accelerated recently due to growth in cloud computing as well as analytics; growing personal ‘smart’ devices as well as machines interconnectivity; and the increase of applications that connects s customers, partners and supply chains. This report provides details about Internet of Things (IoT) with the focus on stakeholders analysis, ethical issues, legal issues, social issues, cultural issues, organisational issues, and resolutions (strategy for implementation). Stakeholders and Analysis method The majority of assets that have been planned to connect and digitize within the Internet of Things have numerous stakeholders all having unique interests. In view of this, the key stakeholders of internet of things include governments, business sector, academia and others. The IoT has massive implications for governments and their institution. It has been projected that by 2020, over ten billion physical devices will have joined the global network, and in consequence, this will offer numerous opportunities as well as concerns for governments. For governments and public sectors, the Value at Stake expected to be generated by IoT is 4.6 trillion US dollars as compared to 14.4 trillion US dollars for the private sector (Bradley et al., 2013, p.1). The main drivers as pointed out by Bradley et al. (2013, p.8) will be connected militarized defence, employee productivity, cost reduction, increased revenue, and citizen experience. The business sector as a key IoT stakeholder benefits from IoT software and devices which are offering them an improved security, more effective equipment and machinery monitoring, energy management, efficiency, and more. According to Greenough (2015), the business world will by 2019 account for 39 per cent of the approximately 23 billion IoT devices that will be active. However, the main barriers to IoT installation within businesses involve high installation costs as well as the growing vulnerability to a cyber-attack. Another key stakeholder is the academic sector, a sector that is in many ways contributing to innovation, both through research as well as in the classroom. The Internet of things offers a powerful way of learning. Still, education will have to adapt hastily so as to realise the benefits of IoT in the future. Ethical Issues According to Popescul and Georgescu (2013, p.212), most ethical debates arise from accessibility, property and privacy. In terms of the property right on information as well as data, the issue arises from the correct acknowledgement of the authors. For instance, it is hard to identify the owner of the data retrieved by the objects’ sensors linked to the IoT. Therefore, when the data is financial or personal, things may get very serious. According to Popescul and Georgescu (2013, p.212), the Internet of Things omnipresence creates invisibility between the private and public space boundaries, making it hard to understand where the data ends up. Besides that, IoT will allow people to be monitored without them being aware. Furthermore, the sensors’ registered data registered will be transferred in big quantities and through networks in different means, which will result in bias to the private life of the user. Through technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC), Radio-frequency identification (RFID), and the Global Positioning System (GPS), the IoT users’ geographical location in addition to their movements may be found easily without their knowledge. A chip implanted to a person for medical reason can be used to gather information without the consent of the person, and then be used maliciously. With regard to information accessibility, if a modern attack on a personal computer can result in loss of information, then IoT will undoubtedly have a direct impact on the lives of people. For instance, when a car control system connected to IoT is interfered, it may consequently endanger the passengers’ life. Everything people do on the internet is stored, and this information is normally transformed to help companies generate revenue. Legal Issues The legal issues of IoT arise mainly from data security and privacy considering that every digital device having an internet connection can be easily hacked. So far, hacking –related activities have concentrated on systems for payment collection and large computer. These systems are mostly attacked because of they are widely distributed, they have high-value data, their programs are widely comprehended. Since the majority of IoT applications are operating together, and their communication is autonomous, Walker (2014) posits that data subjects can be unaware of every process happening. In consequence, this will impact the capability to offer the right consent as well as exercise their rights with regard to the information gathered. Evidently, the privacy and security risks posed by hackers have increased recently; for instance, hackers are using web-linked security cameras to spy on inhabited properties. Normally, IoT platforms are same in design, enabling hackers to take advantage of the IoT device platform common vulnerabilities across various types of devices. Even upon the discovery of the vulnerabilities, devices at low cost can discourage producers of IoT from allotting security patches. Besides that, when IoT has been implemented completely, the volume as well as variety of potentially private and personal information accessible to third parties is massive and eventually presents risk for companies and users trying to gather and utilise that information. Social Issues Undeniably the impact of IoT to the society is expected to be unpredictable and highly complex with key issues arising from the generation of large data quantities, which essentially are not needed or valuable, and may be misused resulting in invalid implications. According to Crump and Brown (2013, p.4), public opinions, attitudes as well as behaviour will be crucial if the society cares more about IoT social issues such as data protection and privacy. Furthermore, data protection as well as privacy will depend on how people in the society feel about trading, giving away, or allowing others to harvest their private information. Furthermore, the IoT may result in increasingly highly coupled, large-scale technological systems, which may eliminate human intervention so as to improve reliability; however, this may consequently increase the likelihood of societal vulnerability due to major system crashes or hacking. Besides that, whether the internet of things will certainly result in improved service provision in the social institution is still not clear. What is clear is that there will be inequality in data access to communities as well as individuals from the IoT, which parallels other digital inequalities across societies. Cultural Issues The Internet of Things will result in high need for scalable DNS services, but an average user cannot modify the DNS services since it depends on heterogeneous network of human beings and machines that cannot be altered easily. Average IoT users from high-context cultures such as China are finding DNS technology to be inescapable, and are expected to follow the existing rules so as to be part of it. There is a great difference between DNS technology as well as the Chinese language; therefore, the Chinese characters have to be ‘deciphered’ into Roman alphabet before routing them to the IP address through the DNS (Zimmermann, 2006, p.103). For the majority of people in high-context cultures, especially those who value their script such as Chinese people, find the phonetic transcription difficult to reads since most of them do not use Roman-alphabet letters to read, but their own characters. Besides that, the phonetic transcription used in IoT is more confusing to some cultures; for instance, many of the Chinese characters share similar phonetic because they are symbols of meaning. Organisational Issues The cyber-attacks have increased with the emergence of the IoT, which is transforming heterogeneous networks into intelligent devices’ super-heterogeneous networks. Regrettably, IoT promotes spying in the place of work, and this has been exacerbated by the emergence of monitoring devices that are Internet-connected. Even though such devices were primarily developed with best intentions, they can be manipulated easily through tablet or Smartphone for malicious purposes. Still, IoT can help organisations track their assets electronically; thus, improving the use of assets to meet the consumer demand. Lack of implementation strategy will make organisations unable to gain the benefits attributed to IoT. Other organisational issues brought about by IoT include; increased insecurity on the existing systems and the high cost of implementing IoT. Resolutions Successful implementation of IoT strategy in organisational operations process can result in improved customer experience, efficiency maximization, and identification of new revenue opportunities. For a company to benefit from the Internet of Things, they must first develop a clear value plan that may be offered to the customers, and which must be in line with the enterprise’s overall capabilities system. One can implement IoT solution through enablers such as Intel, Google, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, who basically develop and maintain the IoT infrastructure. A company can successfully implement IoT through engagers who involve in designing, developing, integrating, and delivering IoT services to customers. Importantly, engagers provide a direct connection between the market as well as IoT, and they utilize the IoT infrastructure developed by the Enablers so as to generate produce services for businesses as well as consumers. Another way of implementing IoT is through enhancers who offer integrated services that repackage as well as reframe the engagers’ products and services. Conclusion In conclusion, it has been mentioned that IoT bring about benefits that can help society, businesses, and individuals every day.   As cited in the report, IoT facilitates communication between devices, but brings about various ethical, social, cultural, legal, and organisational issues. Thus far, IoT has closely been related to machine-to-machine communication in manufacturing utilities. Besides that, IoT has been described as networking of physical objects by utilising devices capable of transmitting or collecting information concerning the objects. The data collected from such devices is subsequently analysed so as to optimize operations, services, and products. References Bradley, J., Reberger, C., Dixit, A. & Gupta, V., 2013. Internet of Everything: A $4.6 Trillion Public-Sector Opportunity. San Jose, CA. White Paper: Cisco. Crump, J. & Brown, I., 2013. The Societal Impact of the Internet of Things. Workshop. Oxford: Oxford Internet Institute. Greenough, J., 2015. The corporate 'Internet of Things' will encompass more devices than the smartphone and tablet markets combined. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-enterprise-internet-of-things-market-2015-7 [Accessed 1 October 2015]. Gubbi, J., Buyya, R., Slaven, M. & Palaniswami, M., 2013. Internet of Things (IoT): A vision, architectural elements, and future directions. Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 29, pp.1645–60. Mattern, F. & Floerkemeier, C., 2010. From the Internet of Computers to the Internet of Things. Zurich: ETH Zurich Institute for Pervasive Computing. Popescul, D. & Georgescu, M., 2013. Internet of Things - some ethical issues. The USV Annals of Economics and Public Administration, vol. 13, no. 2, pp.208-14. Walker, K., 2014. The legal considerations of the internet of things. [Online] Available at: http://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/The-legal-considerations-of-the-internet-of-things [Accessed 1 October 2015]. Zimmermann, B., 2006. Uncovering Cultural Issues in the Internet of Things: A Design Method. In Internet of Things. Zurich. pp.100-104. Read More