In my latest opinion piece on IoT Agenda “Why governments must take the lead on IoT security frameworks” I argue that there needs to be more government involvement when it comes to IoT security. At least until the industry more broadly accepts that IoT security, if done right, can become a competitive advantage and even speed up innovation.
We are now on the brink of an era in which cyber-kinetic vulnerabilities of IoT technologies are on the way to become a bigger threat to our physical safety than some traditional physical safety threats. The complexity of securing IoT is an order of magnitude larger as it has to account for both – physical safety and cybersecurity, and because the threats change much faster.
There is a reason why a free-market “self-policing” doctrine is not applied to our roads and highways, medicine and medical devices, food safety, occupational safety and similar. Because it wouldn’t work. Our human nature and the laws of economics tell us so. So how can we be so indifferent about placing an increasing amount of physical processes and objects around us under the control of embedded cyber components of questionable security?
Marin Ivezic is a Cybersecurity & Privacy Partner in PwC Canada focused on risks of emerging technologies.
