WSJ Validates Our Prediction About IoT Isn't Cybersecure

In our list, Ongoing Trends for 2018, published Dec. 18th,  we predicted that "IoT will continue to be victim to cyberattacks."

In its special cybersecurity supplement on Dec. 19th, the Wall St. Journal published an article entitled, "Smart Devices, Increased Risks: John Carlin on how security isn't ready for the Internet of Things." The article featured John Carlin, a former assistant attorney general in the national security division of the DOJ, who validated our main point: "Across the board, we didn't properly calculate the price of risk in making the decision to move all of this information and connect it through this insecure medium."

Carlin also said:

With the Internet of Things, we are on the cusp of a massive exponential increase in new devices that can cause immediate loss of life or serious injury that are going be connected through this same insecure protocol. What we can’t do or shouldn’t do is make the same mistake again of discounting risk before we make this societal transformation.

The move from a car with a driver to a driverless car, for example, is going to bring significant changes to our society and the way we move goods and services. In government, we didn’t think of trucking as something that could fundamentally disrupt society. But if all of those trucks are connected, you can disrupt it on scale.

The Journal also published another article, "Connected Device Manufacturers Not Addressing Cyber Risks: Manufacturers of connected devices aren’t adequately addressing cybersecurity threats associated with them."

We love the idea of IoT but are concerned and skeptical about security issues around the convenience that IoT offers its users -- and potential hackers.

Meanwhile, since our prediction on IoT and cybersecurity came a day before these articles hit, you can say that we scooped the Journal.