For a connected device to take action on your behalf, whether it’s paying when your smart refrigerator reorders milk, or a smart TV that allows or denies your kids to download or watch specific shows, there must be an authentication process.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing rapidly, with connected devices and white goods entering our homes and workplaces at an unprecedented rate.
Now, thanks to Wi-Fi, what we once thought of as white goods is becoming increasingly connected and "smart." Now it’s possible to order a pizza, refill the fridge, and download a movie to watch, all within ten minutes, all without ever leaving the comfort of your lazy couch—with IoT technology, bliss!
There is no doubt that the Internet of Things has made life easier, eliminating the need to go to the store or compete with others for the only parking space, or to stumble down the street with a full shopping bag. Modbus через RS485
The Internet of Things allows us to delegate important and mundane tasks to connected devices every day, freeing us to focus on the more complex and interesting things in life. If your fridge can buy milk automatically (and if it doesn't, chances are you'll need a smart fridge in due course), you'll be able to think less about household chores in the hectic modern life, or on the way home from work .
However, like most good news, IoT comes with caveats, chief among them cybersecurity concerns.
Who bills your account?
For a connected device to take action on your behalf, whether it’s paying when your smart refrigerator reorders milk, or a smart TV that allows or denies your kids to download or watch specific shows, there must be an authentication process. In other words, the device or provider has to make sure the request is made by the correct person, just like traditionally when using a bank card.
Your smart fridge has to make sure it's you who just ordered champagne and caviar and asked to be charged to your account/card and not your kids, cleaners, or someone hacking into your fridge to make fraudulent transactions.
Let's also not forget that your manufacturer or service provider has to make sure this is a real refrigerator and that it belongs to you so it knows it's talking to the correct appliance. After all, the manufacturer needs to be able to authenticate that it's the right refrigerator, receive requests from the right people, and authenticate payments.
As a society used to authenticate transactions, it happens every day. Often, this process involves a PIN or password — for example, when we use a credit card in a store or check our bank card balance. The problem is, we know that these authentication methods are no longer applicable, for example, PIN codes can be easily guessed or discovered by criminals, and passwords are often leaked.
In fact, the repeated advice is that passwords must be unique and complex. An example of why this method of authentication is outdated: If the forecast is correct, by 2020, more than 20 billion devices will be connected to the Internet of Things, and a large proportion of devices will be directly related to payments. This opens up as many as 20 billion opportunities for cybercriminals, especially if these devices rely on outdated authentication protocols. TCP-шлюз modbus
The answer is at your fingertips
To protect what we hold dear, we need a higher level of authentication, which is completely personal to us and impossible to replicate. Biometrics is the answer to the Internet of Things.
Manufacturers of smart products must embed fingerprint sensors into connected devices so that authentication can take place in the field without sending the information into cyberspace.
Locally stored biometric data used for authentication is virtually impossible to hack or intercept by criminals, and impossible for anyone to personally reproduce. The only person who can authenticate an action, permission or transaction involving biometrics must be the person whose fingerprint is kept as a record on the device.
Biometric authentication would eliminate the current fears of devices being lost or stolen, or even sold. Using biometrics for authentication will give users a truly personalized and secure IoT experience.