The Internet of
(Better) Things

Nick Moore
@mnemote

Panacea?

image: revistamundonatural.com

Panopticon?

image: focault.info

image: wikimedia commons

images: wikimedia commons / diyphotography.net

not a
TECHNICAL
issue

CONTROL

On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life.

On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.

Stewart Brand, 1st Hackers Conference 1984

The State of the IoT

New legal, ethical, etiquette challenges
Many manufacturers and experimenters breaking new ground
Market isn't really settled yet

... a bit like mobile phones in the 1990s

... or motorcars in the 1920s

The State of the IoT

The Internet of Shit

The State of the IoT

Analysis of the ways IoT is currently bad
Requirements for it to be less bad
Solutions which meet those requirements

1. If you're not the customer, you're the product.

The backend services have to get paid for somehow.
If you're not paying directly, you're paying indirectly
- ... by accepting advertising
- ... by having your privacy sold.
This has led to a conflation of IoT and Big Data

2. End Of Life

Your hi-tech device may suddenly turn into a doorstop if the service provider no longer feels like supporting it.
Not much cross-brand compatibility

arlogilbert.com

3. Internet Not Found

Most devices useless if the Internet isn't available.
Even the most reliable networks sometimes go down.
Consumer-grade routers fail frequently.

telegraph.co.uk

4. Cryptography

Crypto support on IoT devices is often very weak.
Partly because of lack of entropy, CPU, RAM.
It's tricky to use a protocol like SSL on a tiny CPU.

5. Awful Software

The software for things like lightbulbs is often awful, and open to all kinds of exploitation.
This shouldn't be too surprising since even the manufacturers of electronic locks have trouble getting this right.

6. Update Cycle

It's hard enough to get people to change their smoke alarm batteries or update Internet Explorer.
No-one ever is going to reflash their thermostat.
While devices are reloading, they are generally unavailable.

Complaints → Requirements

Internet Mediation Internet Independence
Vendor Lockin Generic Interfaces
SSL Simplified Cryptography
C / Linux Easier development

Requirements → Potential Solutions

Client/Server → Peer to Peer
Standards-based Hardware Description Language
Shared Secrets, initialized by QR code
Simpler development with Micropython!

The Internet of(Better) Things

Nick Moore @mnemote

Panacea?

Panopticon?

The State of the IoT

The State of the IoT

The State of the IoT

1. If you're not the customer, you're the product.

2. End Of Life

3. Internet Not Found

4. Cryptography

5. Awful Software

6. Update Cycle

Complaints → Requirements

Requirements → Potential Solutions

Questions / Comments

The Internet of
(Better) Things

Nick Moore
@mnemote