Enterprises continue to embrace IoT strategies to streamline operations, boost efficiency, and improve customer experiences. From hospitals to manufacturers to public sector agencies, IoT device fleets are critical for meeting these modernization goals.

However, the acceleration in connected device deployment opens new windows for cybercriminals and exposes networks to potential breaches.

Kenan Frager, VP of Marketing at Asimily, warns that vulnerable IoT devices continue to be a glaring cybersecurity weak spot for many enterprises. He opines that businesses are lured by the benefits the devices offer but do not take the necessary effort to check if such technologies are sufficiently secure.

“Regardless of industry, an attack on IoT infrastructure can and will result in operational downtime, loss of IP, loss of revenue, and reputational harm.”

Kenan Frager

He notes that regulatory compliance adds another layer of pressure, with steep fines and sanctions looming for breaches that affect HIPAA, PCI DSS, NIST, SOC 2, and other increasingly stringent mandates.

Report findings

Breach tactics continue evolving: Cybercriminals seeking confidential proprietary data to sell for financial gain look for and infiltrate vulnerable and often-unsecured IoT devices to establish initial access to an enterprise’s network.

That tactic supports ransomware attacks as well, with criminals gaining access via IoT endpoints, encrypting data, and extorting ransoms. In other cases, nation-state-sponsored groups are motivated to shut down or disrupt the services of their targets.

A common tactic is harvesting vast fleets of vulnerable IoT devices to create botnets and utilize them to conduct DDoS attacks. Attackers also know they can rely on unresolved legacy vulnerabilities, as 34 of the 39 most-used IoT exploits have been present in devices for at least three years.

Routers are the most targeted IoT devices, accounting for 75% of all IoT infections. Hackers exploit routers as a stepping stone to access other connected devices within a network. Security cameras and IP cameras are the second most targeted devices, making up 15% of all attacks.

Other commonly targeted devices include digital signage, media players, digital video recorders, printers, and smart lighting. The Asimily report, IoT Device Security in 2024: The High Cost of Doing Nothing also highlights the especially consequential risks associated with specialised industry equipment, including devices critical to patient care in healthcare (including blood glucose monitors and pacemakers), real-time monitoring devices in manufacturing, and water quality sensors in municipalities.

Cyber insurers are capping payouts. Cybersecurity insurance is becoming more expensive and difficult to obtain as cyberattacks become more common. More insurers are now requiring businesses to have strong IoT security and risk management in place to qualify for coverage—and increasingly denying or capping coverage for those that do not meet certain thresholds.

Among the reasons why cyber insurers deny coverage, a lack of security protocols is the most common, at 43%. Not following compliance procedures accounts for 33% of coverage denials. Even if insured, though, reputational damage remains a risk: 80% of a business’s customers will defect if they do not believe their data is secure.

Manufacturing is now the top target: Cybercriminals are increasingly focusing their attention on the manufacturing, finance, and energy industries. Retail, education, healthcare, and government organizations remain popular targets, while media and transportation have been de-emphasized over the past couple of years.

“There’s a clear and urgent need for more businesses to prioritise a more thorough risk management strategy capable of handling the unique challenges of the IoT,” said Shankar Somasundaram, CEO, Asimily.

“While organisations often struggle with the sheer volume of vulnerabilities in their IoT device fleets, crafting effective risk KPIs and deploying tools to gain visibility into device behaviour empowers them to prioritise and apply targeted fixes.”

Shankar Somasundaram

He added that this approach, coupled with a deeper understanding of attacker behaviour, enables teams to distinguish between immediate threats, manageable risks, and non-existent dangers.

“The right strategy equips organizations to focus efforts where they matter most, maximising their resources while ensuring the security of their IoT ecosystem at scale,” he concluded.

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The report notes the continued diversification of the Alliance’s collaborative ecosystem, which drove end-to-end IoT solutions. It claimed that deployments are delivering strong ROI, which in turn is accelerating the decision-making process for new users and projects.

• Smart cities are increasingly requiring LoRaWAN-certified end devices in their RFPs.
• LoRaWAN took a leadership position in Industry 5.0 as it meets the sustainability, efficiency and quality-of-life requirements.
• The benefits and ROI of LoRaWAN deployments are exponential when end users collaborate with system integrators and solution providers.
• LoRaWAN is the leader in the emerging satellite-based LPWAN communications market, with multiple member companies delivering networking via satellite and rapidly growing deployments in the sector.
• The Alliance is meeting the emerging workforce needs of the IoT with its LoRaWAN Accredited Professional program, giving end users confidence in the vendors they select.

“In 2023, key end markets such as cities, buildings and utilities widely embraced LoRaWAN and the ROI it provides, leading to large-scale deployments that sparked further innovation in use cases,” stated Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance.

She added that the demand for certified LoRaWAN devices within these essential sectors continues to grow as it is critical for massive device rollouts. Confidence in LoRaWAN was further reinforced through our Accredited Professional program, which addresses end users’ desire for a way to evaluate vendors’ knowledge of the development and implementation of LoRaWAN. As the leader in global LPWAN deployments, we anticipate an even stronger year in 2024.”

“We continued to see strong growth globally in IoT deployments in 2023, with LoRaWAN clearly established as the market leader in LPWANs,” said Robin Duke-Woolley, CEO and Chief Analyst, Beecham Research. “With its established and active ecosystem, considerable involvement of system integrators and solution providers, and expansive features, including connectivity via satellite, we expect LoRaWAN will see strong growth again in 2024 as the IoT continues to mature.”

Other highlights

• Validation of LoRaWAN by IEC and CEN standards for smart metering, affirming its capability to meet specialised market requirements.
• Issuance of two Technical Recommendations enhancing LoRaWAN functionality, including network capacity improvement and direct device-to-device communication.
• Release of several FAQ documents to deepen understanding of recent LoRaWAN specification updates.
• Enabling pre-testing of firmware updates over the air (FUOTA) and relay specifications, alongside new reporting features via the LoRaWAN Certification Test Tool (LCTT).
• Development of tools and procedures by the Interoperability Work Group to certify interoperability among LoRaWAN network components, including the establishment of an interoperability testbed architecture.

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“Third-party cybersecurity risk management is often resource-intensive, overly process-oriented and has little to show for in terms of results,” said Zachary Smith, Sr principal research at Gartner. “Cybersecurity teams struggle to build resilience against third party-related disruptions and to influence third party-related business decisions.”

Effective TPCRM depends on delivery of three outcomes

Successful management of third-party cybersecurity risk depends on the security organisation’s ability to deliver three outcomes – resource efficiency, risk management resilience and influence on business decision-making. However, enterprises struggle to be effective in two out of those three outcomes, and only 6% of organisations are effective in all three (see Fig. 1).

Figure 1. Security organisations’ ability to deliver on three outcomes for effective TPCRM

Four actions to manage third-party cybersecurity risks

Based on the survey findings, Gartner identified four actions that security and risk management leaders must take to increase their effectiveness in managing third-party cybersecurity risk. The survey found that organisations that implemented any of these actions saw a 40-50% increase in TPCRM effectiveness.

These actions include:

Regularly review how effectively third-party risks are communicated to the business owner of the third-party relationship: Chief information security officers (CISOs) need to regularly review how well the business understands their messaging around third-party risks to ensure they are providing actionable insights around those risks.

Track third-party contract decisions to help manage risk acceptance by business owners: Business owners will often choose to engage with a third party even if they are well-informed about associated cybersecurity risks. Tracking decisions helps security teams align compensating controls for risk acceptances and alerts security teams to particularly risky business owners that may require greater cybersecurity oversight.

Conduct third-party incident response planning (e.g., playbooks, tabletop exercises): Effective TPCRM goes beyond identifying and reporting cybersecurity risks. CISOs must ensure the organisation has strong contingency plans in place to prepare for unexpected scenarios and to be able to recover well in the wake of an incident.

Work with critical third parties to mature their security risk management practices as necessary: In a hyperconnected environment, a critical third party’s risk is also an organisation’s risk. Partnering with critical third parties to improve their security risk management practices helps promote transparency and collaboration.

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10 Wi-Fi predictions for 2024 and beyond

10Gbps will be commonplace

Fibre broadband deployments will continue to expand in most developed and developing markets, creating a need for an upgrade of home Wi-Fi networks to pass on the increased bandwidth to the device, which will drive the rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7.  The rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 6E/7 will also be driven by its ability to access additional spectrum in the 6GHz band as more countries open the band.

Wi-Fi 7 to drive immersive experience and online gaming

A recent Bain & Company report forecasts that global revenue for video gaming could increase by another 50% over the next five years.  In a sport where milliseconds count, networking equipment will be just as crucial to the game as the speed of the gaming rig. Wi-Fi 7 will be critical for speed and near-zero latency, and game developers will break new barriers with immersive experiences. Wi-Fi 7 client devices have already been released in 2023 with Qualcomm chipset with more to come in 2024.

OpenRoaming to integrate with private 5G and IoT networks in 2024

OpenRoaming’s growth will reach a critical point of exponential growth by 2026 when tens of millions of hotspots will be enabled. Deployments of OpenRoaming (with Passpoint), continue to rise as more brands and identity providers recognize the value of the federation to enable seamless connectivity access across different networks.

Convergence will enable access to private and/or public 5G services over Wi-Fi

The WBA expects network executives will continue deploying Wi-Fi and cellular in the coming years, with Wi-Fi 6E/7 for indoor, on-campus, and fixed network situations and 5G/cellular for outdoor, off-campus, and mobile environments. Rather than competing with 5G over emerging high-performance use cases, the Wi-Fi community continues to work on coexistence with 5G, especially around identity management, authentication, and policy management.

Network as a Service adoption to rise driven by cloud use

NaaS (Network as a Service) will rise beyond early adopters (e.g. managed Wi-Fi in multi-apartment units) spreading quickly to traditional enterprises where networks provide cloud-first, software-defined, application-centric environments. NaaS is attracting customers because it accelerates and simplifies the deployment of devices in today’s shortened equipment replacement and improves security with the delivery of continuous security updates that prevent and reduce breaches and outages.

Adaptive AI is coming

The role of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) cannot be overstated, with Adaptive AI set to explode on networks, from enabling Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) to predicting network resourcing needs. AI will help enterprises and ISPs speed up troubleshooting; streamline monitoring; and proactively anticipate outages, equipment failures, and performance degradation.

Outdoor AFC is also coming

Outdoor AFC (automated frequency coordination) will initially be successful in rural connectivity, in countries that have opened large portions of the 6GHz spectrum to Wi-Fi. We expect 6GHz low-power indoor (LP) devices with an average transmit power of 24 dBm to proliferate quickly for indoor applications such as residential mesh, indoor public venues, and high-density enterprise networks. We also expect 6GHz very low-power indoor (VPI) devices with 14 dBm maximum transmit power to be quickly adopted for short-range indoor applications such as AR/VR/XR, streaming, and gaming. These device classes do not require AFC coordination with the incumbents.

Standards to unify connectivity

New IoT technology will help unify connectivity across multiple home devices, transforming home users’ experience with IoT devices. Matter — a new industry standard launched in 2023 provides reliable, secure connectivity across multiple device manufacturers. Given the weight of players involved (e.g., Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung SmartThings), WBA expects the adoption of Matter-certified products will be exponential in the next three years, validating Wi-Fi’s central role in the smart connected home and buildings.

TIP Open Wi-Fi tests underway

Pilot projects and trials of TIP Open Wi-Fi will proliferate in developing countries and price-sensitive markets due to its cost-effectiveness and the benefits offered by an open disaggregated model. Well-established wireless local-area network (WLAN) vendors will continue working to make themselves more cost-effective in these markets through massive investment in machine learning and AI and an integrated Wi-Fi + 5G offering to enterprises.

Deeper adoption of AR and VR

Broader adoption of augmented and virtual reality will require indoor broadband networks to adapt with improvements in user interfaces and network capabilities to cater for larger groups of users. According to Bloomberg, the metaverse’s economy is expected to generate $800 billion by 2025 and $2.5 trillion by 2030. Thus, the metaverse is the universe of the future. Major brands are making substantial investments in this technology.

Rodrigues says: “There has never been a more exciting time for Wi-Fi with technologies such as OpenRoaming more widely available than ever and addressing the challenges in areas including Guest Wi-Fi provision, IoT deployments and private cellular networks. The HaLow program is creating huge interest in low-power extended-range Wi-Fi and we are looking forward to working with the Wi-Fi ecosystem to develop industry trials for Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) during 2024.”

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Recognising the impact of S&G factors is imperative for telcos navigating the complexities of corporate partnerships and global enterprises, suggests GlobalData.

GlobalData’s analysis of 11 global telecoms service providers finds that they are improving performance in terms of gender, minority, LGBTQ+, and disability balance, with most working from historic baselines and setting targets for future ratios.

These metrics are becoming increasingly widely adopted and assessed by independent third parties. No longer a “nice to have,” they can make a positive commercial contribution – or can cause significant damage if not adhered to or found to be false.

Robert Pritchard, principal enterprise technology and services analyst at GlobalData, comments: “It is widely recognised that a diverse workforce is better at decision-making, problem-solving, and innovating by avoiding groupthink and rearview mirror planning. Managed well, S&G improves engagement with talent, customers, suppliers, communities, and governments.”

Governance issues such as modern slavery, tax compliance, and ethical operating practices should always be a given – if not, failure can result in loss of business or the demise of the service provider, with WorldCom perhaps the most obvious historical example in telecoms.

“Service providers are also investing in employee training, contributing to the communities in which they work through technology initiatives to breach the digital divide, volunteering schemes that also work as team building exercises, as well as many broader activities to ‘give something back.’ Standards of support for employee health and wellbeing have also progressed substantially, again helping productivity and talent retention.”

Robert Pritchard

He observes that S&G has evolved from the fairly haphazard world of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) and can be seen as the poor cousin of Environmental issues in ESG, but together they all point the way forward – and tech companies as a sector can be proud to be leaders in this field.

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CSPs will be increasing their spending in multi-domain, multi-vendor and multi-technology network control, management and orchestration systems that support hybrid cloud networking environments.

By 2028, 60% of the total NAO expenditure will be dedicated to 5G, WAN automation and multi-domain orchestration predicts the firm.

Michelle Lam, an analyst at Analysys Mason, predicts the coming years will be a critical time for 5G, marked by maturing technology and evolving use cases that are prompting CSPs to invest heavily in advanced automation and orchestration capabilities.

“This investment serves the dual purpose of reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) by streamlining complex operational processes, and secondly, unlocking new revenue opportunities with service differentiation,” she elaborated.

According to Lam, 5G-related NAO spending is projected to grow at a CAGR of 27.2% during the forecast period to reach USD8.6 billion, aligning with CSPs’ imperative to modernise their 5G SA infrastructure to support end-to-end network slicing, cloud-native automation and intent-based orchestration.

“CSPs will look towards enhancing these capabilities with artificial intelligence/machine learning- (AI/ML) driven closed-loop automation to enable automated slice lifecycle management across multi-vendor, multi-cloud and multi-technology environments.”

She believes these efforts will rely on open standards and the adoption of Kubernetes-based network architectures to facilitate the orchestration of cloud-native network functions (CNFs).

“Open-source initiatives, such as the Nephio project, will be the driving force to unify CNF orchestration across the RAN, core and transport network and support CNF domain orchestration in multi-vendor cloud infrastructure across large-scale edge deployments,” she continued.

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In addition to securing facilities, CISOs of publicly traded companies throughout Europe are now required to run recurring vulnerability scans, report on cybersecurity breaches within a reasonable timeframe, and report their risk exposure.

To bring companies in line with the new requirements in addition to their existing regulations, Radiflow has developed a three-pillar approach consisting of OT network illumination, prioritizing security for business-critical assets, and a clear onboarding process. In addition, they help ease the transition to new regulations by offering risk assessment and compliance services for companies going through the NIS2 journey.

“Many companies are entering a new world of cybersecurity regulation, unsure of how to go from their current security systems to more advanced ones that comply with regional legislations,” said Ilan Barda, co-founder & CEO of Radiflow.

“The want to comply is there, however, it’s a big leap for many teams. We’ve found that a customer-first approach to onboarding is allowing for faster time to be cyber-secure while demanding fewer resources.”

Ilan Barda

Many companies utilize older cybersecurity practices, outdated tools, or have no OT cybersecurity program at all. This presents a large skill gap between OT cybersecurity professionals today and the capabilities of a modern platform.

The CIARA 4.0 platform allows teams to gain insights into best practices for security controls, allowing for better mapping and reporting of their security posture. Working with teams allows for a smooth transition while integrating into existing systems, CIARA V4.0 can assist with compliance by focusing on continuous risk monitoring, enabling analysis of actions caused by the recent changes to the risk score.

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IoT development in Europe reflects enterprises' evolving digital transformation investment objectives related to cost reduction, process streamlining, automation, and enhanced customer experience. There are, nevertheless, varying dynamics in regional markets.

Central and Eastern European (CEE) organisations' investments, for example, remain significantly below the European market average, with expected single-digit increases over the forecast period.

In the last three years, many investments were put on hold in CEE, due to the various challenges related to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the overall pressured macro-economic environment.

However, as IoT has proven to be integral to cost reduction, process optimization, automation, and enhanced management and monitoring capabilities, IDC expects investments to accelerate by the end of the forecast period.

From an overall industry perspective, European IoT spending will be driven by investments from manufacturing, utilities, and professional services organisations. Prominent use cases will include production asset management, distribution automation, and infrastructure for smart buildings.

The fastest adoption of IoT will be seen across use cases such as irrigation management in the resources industry and fleet management in transport.

Notable updates in its latest IoT spending guide were made to the use case taxonomy across multiple industries (i.e., discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, retail, resource industries, transportation, and telecommunications).

Updates to the use case taxonomy reflect enterprises' evolving DX investment objectives, some of which were spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent business and societal disruptions.

In terms of technology, modules and sensors will continue to drive IoT-related spending.

This was followed by related services such as industrial maintenance to support the ongoing operation of device hardware ("things"), vertical business process outsourcing services, infrastructure as a service, and data as a service.

Low power wide area networks (LPWANs) will see the fastest-growing investments and will be a critical IoT area for telecom providers in the next few years.

Spending on analytics software will also increase, as organisations strive to turn data collected by connection endpoints into actionable insights.

"Due to the uncertain macroeconomic context, European organisations are expected to continue feeling pressure on budgets, with additional investments restrained in the short and medium term," says Alexandra Rotaru, senior research analyst with IDC's European Data & Analytics Team. "However, IoT will remain a critical tool for improving performance and efficiency and increasing automation capabilities. It will continue to be a key investment area, helping organisations to reduce costs and enhance productivity despite challenges."

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The IDC study also shows that organisations which have established intelligent automation practices are also more mature in terms of their sustainability efforts.

Sustainability—viewed by IDC through a triple-bottom-line lens of maximizing benefits to, and minimizing negative impacts on, the economy, society, and the environment—is a leading priority for organisations. Yet significant cost and complexity challenges make progress difficult.

“Sustainability is a major strategic priority for businesses, and organisations the world over are moving quickly to define sustainability goals and incentives. However, when it comes to operationalising sustainability initiatives, there are significant business and technology challenges that make progress difficult," said Neil Ward-Dutton, vice president of automation, analytics, and AI at IDC Europe.

"With automation's ability to increase an organisation's agility, efficiency and speed to value, enterprise automation platforms and practices can help address many of these challenges and have strong roles to play in unlocking the potential of sustainability initiatives."

Neil Ward-Dutton

“Automation fills an organisation’s operational gaps and makes sustainability initiatives actionable at a time where sustainability is a leadership and management priority,” said Rob Enslin, co-CEO at UiPath. “Every organisation has a responsibility to be a responsible corporate citizen for its community, its employees, and the environment. The insights are relevant for all businesses."

"Enterprise automation is ideal for unlocking the potential of sustainability initiatives across the organisation and for overcoming technical barriers.”

Rob Enslin

The survey reveals:

Sustainability investments are a major priority, but present challenges

Global executives noted that the top drivers for their sustainability initiatives were operational efficiencies and cost savings (40%), and enhanced brand value and trust (33%). Additionally, 68% said that they have a board member specifically responsible for sustainability.

Regarding sustainability program priorities, more than one-third of respondents highlighted the importance of IT efficiency. About 28% indicated responsible sourcing as their main concern, and 27% reported that both overall energy efficiency and employee well-being, health, and safety were top of mind.

However, 35% of respondents indicated that dispersed/siloed resources were the main organisational challenges they faced when attempting to become more sustainable, followed by difficulty identifying appropriate KPIs (33%) and a lack of operational technology (32%).

Automation for sustainability offers substantial benefits

To introduce and manage sustainability initiatives, organisations are leveraging automation to drive agility and ensure the quality of information and measurement. Organisations are using automation to extract data more easily from human-readable documents and to source data quickly. Another top automation use case for sustainability is process improvement (45%).

When weighing the benefits automation could bring to their organisations in the future, more than half of all executives indicated the value of enabling workers to do more meaningful work and increasing employee satisfaction as the top potential advantage.

Other potential benefits included more easily sourcing data (55%); the ability to develop new value propositions, products, and services (53%); and easier understanding of operational performance and improvement areas (52%).

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Companies that are solving climate challenges for customers are enhancing and marketing current sustainability-focused solutions while also generating new business units and revenue opportunities from decarbonisation activities.

In a new report, ABI Research establishes the sustainability positioning of 10 of the world’s largest industrial manufacturing conglomerates and lists company-wide best practices and external customer use cases for reducing carbon emissions, water use, and waste across multiple industries.

Sustainability Leaders: Schneider Electric, Siemens, ABB, and Bosch

Sustainability Mainstream: Hitachi, General Electric, Honeywell, and LG

Sustainability Followers: Mitsubishi Corporation and Rockwell Automation

Kim Johnson, sustainable technologies principal analyst, explains, “Our assessment highlights that all the conglomerates in the index are building businesses to decarbonise society. However, several have communicated ambitions to be global climate change leaders. They also do very well financially, even in a tumultuous market environment.”

Schneider Electric is a sustainability and energy management-focused company, targeting carbon neutrality within its own operations by 2025. In 2022, with sustainability at the core of its business, Schneider Electric had all-time high revenues and net income, despite global inflationary pressures; their energy management unit is up 13%, and industrial automation is up 10%.

Siemens ranked second in the index in industrial digital automation and green buildings and vehicles while receiving solid scores for renewable energy use. In 2022, Siemens had record profits, with their digital business up roughly 15% and the industrial business up 17%.

ABB was also a leading technology implementer for industrial automation and robotics with year-over-year revenue increases in 2022.

Bosch, which has already achieved carbon neutrality for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions (in 2020), had strong sales in 2021 and 2022 with climate response driving sustainable product development.  In 2022, Bosch’s corporate leadership stated that “climate action is driving the business forward” in mobility solutions, industrial automation, and building technology and appliances.

Hitachi has also made significant investments in recent years for decarbonisation, purchasing ABB’s energy and power grids business for expanding renewable energy, producing electric vehicle (EV) systems and infrastructure, and improving its Lumada solutions for industrial digitalisation.

For sustainability-focused efforts and revenue opportunities in the near term, ABI Research highlights increases in both industrial Information Technology (IT) investments, such as 5G connectivity, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and edge compute, cloud infrastructure and mobile applications, and Operational Technology (OT) investments, including digital platforms to conserve energy, promote greener buildings, enhance automation, and improve factory efficiencies.

For manufacturers, many of these IT and OT investments can help address the effects of inflation, skilled labour shortages, and supply chain constraints while also addressing climate change by enabling the reduction of energy consumption, water use, and waste.

Surprising revelations

"What surprised us was the depth and breadth of new decarbonisation business units, products, software solutions, and consulting services, each directed at solving climate-related issues for customers. These solutions ranged from national-level mobility and infrastructure projects to greener chemicals used in consumer goods. These companies are all investing in a lower carbon future,” Johnson concluded.

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Existing cold chain services in Hong Kong have not been meeting the expectations of food importers, wholesalers, retailers, and the catering industry. Most cold stores lack temperature control for goods once they leave the cold room, leading to the deterioration of fresh ingredients.

To bridge these gaps in the current cold chain logistics services in Hong Kong, TAHUHU launched what it claims to be the first automated and smart cold chain logistics service in Hong Kong.

The solution includes a seamless temperature-control loading dock, “muti-level no man zone” and top-of-the-line automation equipment, such as "goods-to-person" systems and “automated vertical cargo lift”.

Describing the innovation

TAHUHU utilises state-of-the-art logistics infrastructure, refrigeration systems, temperature control equipment, and stringent temperature control to maintain stable and optimal temperatures for goods in every single step.

With TAHUHU's dual-temperature refrigerated trucks, goods are transported directly to the temperature-controlled loading dock, to prevent the intrusion of hot air. Before loading, the truck will be pre-cooled to the target temperature to ensure all goods are loaded at the correct temperature.

TAHUHU's cold storage is divided into three temperature zones (0-4°C, -18°C, -25°C), allowing fruits, vegetables, flowers, sake, frozen meat, and ice cream to maintain their optimal condition, achieving a complete seamless cold chain connection.

What it means

With its advanced automation and innovative systems, TAHUHU is setting a new standard for cold chain logistics in Hong Kong. The facility's ability to optimise storage space and increase productivity while maintaining the highest quality standards is a testament to its commitment to excellence. TAHUHU's flexible approach to transforming traditional industrial buildings into high-standard cold chain logistics centres, not only increases productivity and enhances property value but also showcases the company's adaptability and innovation.

TAHUHU says its solution can ensure that all goods are seamlessly connected throughout the entire cold chain logistics process. In addition, TAHUHU's new CSA standard is poised to address long term shortcomings in the industry, such as inflexible delivery times, a tight supply of warehouse space, and difficulties in monitoring the performance of delivery drivers.

By utilising advanced CSA, TAHUHU can provide its customers with the most reliable, efficient, and seamless cold chain logistics service available.

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The LoRa Alliance ecosystem delivers end-to-end solutions across the value chain, which enable holistic digital transformation––encompassing technology, data, new workflows, and operational realignments––needed to achieve industry 5.0’s objectives.

Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance noted that over the past few years, the LoRa Alliance has demonstrated how LoRaWAN supports people, the planet and profit.

“These concepts are fundamental to the ideas of Industry 5.0, which aims beyond efficiency and productivity as the sole goals and reinforces the role and the contribution of industry to society with more human-machine collaboration and human-centric solutions,” she added.

“Globally, businesses are recognising that achieving business goals takes more than operational improvements, people and technology must work together to bring about change. LoRaWAN has taken a leadership position in this arena with millions of deployments that ultimately focus on increasing sustainability and improving quality of life."

Donna Moore

"The evolution to Industry 5.0 is not possible without the use of open standards, backed by a strong ecosystem that offers a choice of vendors and endless innovation. This is also why so many organisations worldwide are adopting the LoRaWAN standard to drive their holistic digitisation initiatives,” insisted Moore.

Trends Driving Industry 5.0

The growth of governmental regulations for monitoring to ensure safety, such as New York City’s requirements to monitor for gas leaks. Using LoRaWAN for real-time monitoring has accelerated shut-off times by 6X, according to LoRa Alliance members Senet and ProSentry, saving lives and property.

A rapid increase in P&C insurance premiums, reported to be more than 300% since 2017. Water damage claims are the single largest category of losses contributing to rate increases, accounting for US$300B in global water claims annually. This is leading insurers to transition to a prevention mindset, encouraging building owners and operators to adopt leak detection technology. LoRa Alliance member Kairos reports that its LoRaWAN flexible leak detection sensors have eliminated water claims for more than 8,000 apartment units since installation and achieved a 6-month ROI on average for asset owners following system installation.

The need for residents’ privacy is also driving LoRaWAN adoption in residential buildings, as it allows for facility monitoring and optimisation without capturing or transmitting any personally identifiable information.

According to Robin Duke-Woolley, CEO and chief analyst at Beecham Research, surveys consistently show that LoRaWAN is the rising star for LPWAN sensor deployments in the smart cities, buildings and utility sectors and also gaining ground rapidly in manufacturing, agriculture, and other high-priority sectors.

"The value that LoRaWAN brings as an open standard makes it inherently agile and encourages innovation across industries," he continued.

Moore added that LoRaWAN’s strengths—open standard, strong security, low power, battery-operated, long-distance transmission, low capital and operating expense—make it the leading LPWAN for IoT and the natural choice for Industry 5.0.

She added that massive LoRaWAN deployments are paving the way to meeting ESG goals and the adoption of Industry 5.0.

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However, system failures and downtime caused by connectivity and network issues can result in high-risk, life-threatening situations. To mitigate any potential problems, network engineers must fully test the connectivity and performance of network components and IoT devices before deploying them.

Keysight Technologies claims its Novus mini addresses this need by giving network engineers a compact, quiet, and affordable platform to test the performance and conformance of their industrial networks.

The Novus mini also supports testing based on time-sensitive networking (TSN) standards, which is a critical safety component in IoT applications such as the advanced driver assistance systems employed in autonomous vehicles.

Benefits of Novus mini

Network testing value: A combined solution offering both traffic generation and protocol testing in a single platform.

Compact, quiet, and affordable: Features the smallest footprint in the industry, outstanding cost per port, and ultra-quiet, fan-less operation.

Validates layers 2-3: Covers full performance and conformance testing.

Tests critical timing standards for industrial IoT: Supports full timing testing and automated time TSN for 802.1AS 2011/2020, 802.1Qbv, 802.1CB, and 802.1Qci.

Ed Agis, alliance work group co-chair at Avnu, said: "The Novus mini offers a comprehensive TSN conformance suite based on multiple Avnu Alliance test plans for different applications and markets, enabling companies to easily test their products on the path to interoperability."

Ram Periakaruppan, vice president and general manager for network test & security solutions at Keysight, says the Novus mini provides real-world validation and automated conformance testing for leading-edge technologies.

"Our customers must trust that their products consistently meet quality standards and comply with regulatory requirements to avoid costly fines and penalties. The Novus mini allows us to deliver this confident assurance with a compact, integrated network test solution that can keep pace with innovation as industries constantly evolve."

Ram Periakaruppan

"As a member of the Avnu Alliance community, Keysight is working with other market leaders to advance Industry 4.0 by crafting essential standards for the next generation of IoT," he added.

The post Platform answers call for improved performance and reliability of industrial networks appeared first on FutureIoT.

Digital transformations are being used to ensure not only supply resiliency but also competitive differentiators. ABI Research says Cold Chain Track & Trace revenue for refrigerated containers (reefers) in the pharma industry is expected to reach US$2.9 billion globally by 2027 as companies look to tackle the US$35 billion worth of products lost to failures in temperature-controlled logistics within the industry each year.

“Both profit and human well-being play a role in the industry's structure and development. Pharma companies seek to innovate and deliver new drugs to the market. In contrast, governments and healthcare systems seek to regulate and ensure that drugs and medicines are verified and effective when reaching patients,” explained Ryan Wiggin, supply chain management & logistics industry analyst at ABI Research.

He added that digital transformations offer a means to achieve both, helping to guarantee end-to-end (E2E) product integrity while delivering effectively and at a fair price. "Comprehensive solutions tackling contemporary pain points are critical for pharma companies to achieve the most efficient and robust routes to market," he continued.

One of pharma's most pressing issues is the need for increasingly granular traceability. Regulations such as the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (EU FMD) and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) push companies away from manual processes and toward more sophisticated digital solutions.

These include Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), such as SnapFulfil, offering inventory management and stock flow optimisation, Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled traceability at a unit level from companies like Wiliot, reefer telematics from companies like Motive, and supply chain control towers from the likes of Optel Group that provide a layer of orchestration by bringing together systems and data siloes into a centralised platform.

In addition, pharma companies and retailers are also revolutionising their picking operations through robotic picking solutions from companies like RightHand Robotics, alongside Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) in warehouses and healthcare facilities. On top of higher speed, accuracy, and picking time, robotic deployments are helping to facilitate protected environments for temperature-controlled products and better resiliency to labour supply fluctuations.

Wiggins opined that out of necessity, cold chain infrastructure and product traceability will see strong investment in support of growing biologics drug development and tailored medicines.

"From a retail and e-commerce perspective, big players like Walgreens and Amazon operating in the generics and prescription markets will continue to lead direct-to-consumer (D2C) channels with higher automation initiatives," he commented.

He further posited that as competition increases and operational requirements evolve, end users must focus on internal alignment and incentivise cooperation with close trading partners to support E2E solutions.

"Technology vendors should utilise strategic partnerships and explore as-a-service offerings to offer companies a comprehensive and managed transformation with simplified adoption,” concluded Wiggin.

The post What pharma needs to meet growth targets and regulation appeared first on FutureIoT.

As NDT software sales are predominantly tied to testing and inspection requirements across industries, the shift toward electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy will augment growth prospects. The NDT testing software market is expected to reach $853.7 million by 2026 from $503.8 million in 2021, registering expansion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1%.

“Industry 4.0 technologies, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML), will enhance existing NDT techniques, paving the way for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) 4.0,” said Ram Ravi, industry principal at Frost & Sullivan. “Further, the need for more reliable and accurate inspection data will drive the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies.”

He added that perpetual licensing has been the predominant business model for software in the NDT sector. “Additionally, the emergence of Industry 4.0 is expected to drive interest in newer business models, encouraging NDT vendors to offer software as a subscription,” he continued.

New opportunities

The growing landscape of the NDT software market encourages its market participants to focus on:

Strengthening their software offering by integrating AI/ML and providing enhanced value to customers.

Offering software that is simple and easy to use for customers and that easily integrates with existing systems.

Developing their robotic inspection solutions in-house or partnering with or acquiring companies offering these products.

Providing a closed-loop architecture that facilitates data collection and processing for manufacturing to assist organizations in making more informed decisions.

The post Frost identities new NDT market opportunities appeared first on FutureIoT.

“With increased focus on sustainable development goals, enterprises are looking for tools to help them better audit and interrogate their supply chains. The connectivity of IoT solutions coupled with the security, immutability, and transparency that blockchain can provide is very appealing,” said John Canali, IoT Principal Analyst, Omdia.

However, despite the clear enterprise interest in blockchain, Omdia believes the technology must evolve further before it is ready for rapid adoption in IoT. 

“Probably the limiting factor is simply the complexity of blockchain technology. Not only is blockchain conceptually complex, but it is also technically complex and there are different varieties of blockchain solutions with different attributes.  As such, enterprises will need to establish internal expertise before adopting it widely in their organisation,” he added.

The added complexity runs contrary to the simplicity that many IoT enterprises require. This was highlighted in an Omdia survey where enterprises cited IoT adoption complexity as one of the top 3 pain points (and key challenge).

Canali is optimistic about the future convergence of these two transformative technologies. “Blockchain is evolving very quickly and addressing inefficiencies in the technology. For instance, in a short amount of time, stakeholders have addressed issues around the massive amounts of energy used to mine blockchains. Omdia believes this progress will continue and allow the technology to see wider implementation in IoT.”

John Canali

The post Blockchain is a priority for IoT enterprises in 2023 appeared first on FutureIoT.

Frost & Sullivan’s Smart City Solutions Growth Opportunities reveals that the sector is evolving from aiming to create traffic management solutions to converging with industry participants creating solutions for data simulation, the sharing economy, social media, and mass transit.

The smart city solutions market will likely experience a boom as investments in upgrading telecommunication networks in cities to 5G standards will drive growth in digitizing city infrastructure and services.

“In every smart city project, one of the most important layers is connectivity, which is the city-wide network infrastructure that facilitates the data flow between devices and the central monitoring platform,” said Avishar Dutta, mobility senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

He posited that to reduce the cost of setting up such a network, low-power wide-area network technology is seeing adoption to make smart city projects feasible for small urban areas.

“The main market growth drivers are regulations that mandate the biggest cities to reduce their carbon emissions in a timely manner. These regulations demand public spending in smart city investments, and governments are sanctioning smart city projects at an increasing pace, driving competitive intensity.”

Avishar Dutta

Lucrative growth opportunities

Frost says the demand for smart city solutions with increasing applications across areas presents lucrative growth opportunities for market participants. These include:

Autonomous mobility: Smart city solution providers should offer solutions that include vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communication devices.

Future city planning: Municipal authorities should consider the capabilities of smart city solutions to increase a city’s quality of living and harvest data to visualise how to plan out the city for the future.

Smart infrastructure: The mapping of cities to prepare them for autonomous vehicle services is also a market opportunity for smart city solution providers and can be included in smart city solutions.

The post Lucrative opportunities rise as demand for smart city solutions spike appeared first on FutureIoT.

ABI Research forecasts that the WAN RTA tracking market will reach 117.3 connections by 2027. Evolving device hardware and implementation architectures are influential movers. Still, the most important reasons for growth come from an enhanced understanding of the multiplicity of use-cases subsets of RTA tracking, a diverse ecosystem of solution providers, and the role of software in helping enterprises achieve those outcomes.

“WAN technologies only represent a small proportion of total connections in the RTA market,” says Tancred Taylor, IoT markets industry analyst at ABI Research.

“Increasingly, solution providers have moved away from taking a technology-first approach and are letting hardware and implementation architecture choices be dictated by the desired outcomes.” Tancred Taylor

“This has led to greater flexibility in how RTA solutions are implemented and in how adopters can think of returns on their technology investments based on present-day needs and their longer-term digitization strategy,” said Taylor.

The adoption of RTA tracking solutions using WAN technologies is driven by cellular LPWAN because of the increasing demands of customers to have visibility both in open-loop and closed-loop supply chains. Cellular LPWAN also often enables more diverse implementation architectures, such as by acting as gateways or parent devices to Short-Range Wireless (SRW) devices.

While WAN technologies are a holy grail for asset tracking, they remain a long-term proposition for many types of lower-cost RTAs; using flexible implementation architectures allows enterprises to take a serious look at RTA solutions. This includes leveraging IoT technologies and more passive technologies like RFID and barcodes.

Increasingly, solution providers are looking to aggregate data from numerous edge and enterprise sources to feed an RTA tracking solution. Data aggregation allows solution providers to provide richer insights and solve entirely new pain points within an adopter’s supply chain, such as product traceability or cargo monitoring.

As the number of use cases grows to address varying supply chain needs across different enterprise departments, the value of an RTA tracking solution becomes more clearly defined.

According to Taylor supply chain visibility more broadly has been a key focus of the past three years.

He posited that as enterprises look to improve the performance of their supply chains, they are leveraging a wide range of tools to help them reach these new outcomes.

“IoT RTA tracking tools are crucial not only in helping to optimize RTA pool size and speed but also in upgrading visibility into many more supply chain metrics. As companies expand their understanding of what is possible from tracking RTAs, IoT solutions become more complicated and valuable. This creates great market dynamics in which IoT and software innovators can operate,” concluded Taylor.

The post Drivers of greater adoption across all RTA classes appeared first on FutureIoT.

Prefabricated or off-site constructed building units, such as walls, floors, rooms, and frames, are associated with the industry. In response to socioeconomic trends such as the labour shortage, sustainability, and customer demand, MC aims to address the post-pandemic era’s call for more efficient construction methods.

As a result, the global MC market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% to US$142.06 billion by 2028, up from US$103.09 billion in 2022.

“Customers’ surging preference for modular buildings in the post-pandemic era has encouraged MC market participants to broaden their manufacturing and assembly design capabilities,” said Melvin Leong, homes & buildings senior director at Frost & Sullivan.

“The move will increase the use of digital solutions to speed up modular building design and approval processes and focus on sustainable manufacturing practices.”

Melvin Leong

Leong added: that the next two to three years will see the use of MC to build healthcare facilities and schools in rural areas and temporary housing for displaced populations.

“Therefore, market participants must work with engineers and architects to improve modular building design in response to changing demand for indoor air quality and sustainability,” he concluded.

Action items for market participants

• Develop end-to-end capabilities in MC product design, customization, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance.
• Establish partnerships with companies from other industries, enhancing internal processes (for example, design, production, and assembly) that will add value to customers.
• Collaborate with government agencies to improve MC regulations to create uniform standards.
• Develop green MC products that promote sustainability and energy efficiency during the building life cycle.

The post New socio-economic trends to fuel growth of modular buildings appeared first on FutureIoT.

With more than 43 billion IoT devices connected in 2023, Futurist Bernard Marr shares his perspective on the above four trends he believes will influence how we use and interact with these devices.

Click on the YouTube player above to watch Marr reveal his top four trends impacting IoT in 2022.

Click here to see his 2022 predictions and compare – what’s different and the same.

The post Top four IoT trends in 2023 appeared first on FutureIoT.

By the programmable logic controllers (PLC) The Stuxnet computer virus disrupted the Iranian nuclear program by damaging centrifuges used to separate nuclear material.

The United States Presidential Decision Directive 62 (issued in 1998) stated that “Critical infrastructures are those physical and cyber-based systems essential to the minimum operations of the economy and government. They include, but are not limited to, telecommunications, energy, banking and finance, transportation, water systems and emergency services, both governmental and private.”

Trending in ICS security

Tim Conway, a certified instructor and technical director for ICS and SCADA programs at the SANS Institute says globally there are common trends across multiple geographies and critical infrastructure sectors with asset owners and operators pursuing increased interconnectedness across systems, increased remote access, and increased pursuit of cloud integration.

“In addition, with this movement toward connecting and operating systems in ways they never were previously designed for, there is a corresponding increase in concern, which is driving regulation and framework adoption to ensure appropriate levels of cybersecurity detection and defence capabilities.”

Tim Conway

What are the current and emerging ICS vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure (in Asia)? What is the industry doing to address these?

Tim Conway: This is truly a global issue, while some sectors may be of higher risk in certain geographies than other parts of the world, we all face similar challenges across common ICS devices, and protocols that are used in various industries. 

In general, we are seeing a rise in ICS-targeted malware which is concerning for all vendors and the associated industries that rely on those vendor products and solutions. 

Modular malware frameworks that allow adversaries to add capabilities or customise an attack approach have been discovered and they truly provide a force multiplier capability that could enable an increased frequency of attacks across a broader scope of targets potentially.

With the increasing adoption of IIoT, to what extent are ICS vulnerabilities expanding beyond operational technology (OT)?

Tim Conway: There will continue to be a feverish pursuit of connectivity and automation to everything everywhere, our challenge is in understanding where all those trusted communication paths are, how they could be misused and what impactful effects could be achieved. 

Understanding these attack vectors, and vulnerabilities will allow organisations and individuals to make risk-informed decisions about what technologies should be pursued and where.  The phrase, “Just because you can, does not mean you should” applies well here. 

Singapore is probably one of the best examples to look at regarding guidance and thoughtful discussions on the development of a common balanced approach to pursuing innovating technologies and interconnectedness with a healthy dose of concern about how those technologies should be implemented and maintained.

Can you share common pitfalls and challenges in ICS security that impact/endanger critical infrastructure security in Asia?

Tim Conway: Every process has unique considerations and nuanced discussions around appropriate cyber-informed engineering concepts that need to be pursued.  There needs to be a focused investment in the workforce around the areas of operations, engineering, safety, and cybersecurity to begin addressing the issues truly.

What lessons can Asia learn from recent compromises and attacks in industrial companies around the world – to protect the community and national security?

Tim Conway: As a region, I would recommend any country to look to activities being pursued around the world to run national exercises throughout their critical infrastructure sectors and examine the regulation or guidelines that have been implemented elsewhere to determine if there are areas within their own country that could benefit. 

From an attack perspective, each sector should look to impactful attacks around the world and ask the questions of their teams – how that attack could occur in our organisation, would it have been worse, how would we detect and prevent it, what can we do to improve our abilities to operate through a similar attack, and then establish exercises to practice and prepare.

What are the key ICS cybersecurity critical controls that governments and organisations should deploy to adapt, to best fit their environment and risks? How has ICS cyber security evolved in recent years?

Tim Conway: ICS cyber security has greatly expanded from the perspective of solutions and guidance.

We have recently released a whitepaper on “The Five ICS Cybersecurity Critical Controls” and we feel this will significantly help organisations establish focused capital and O&M projects and programs to address the areas of greatest risk.

The post Securing the critical appeared first on FutureIoT.

“LoRa Alliance members, working with their customers identified a new opportunity to enhance ease-of-use,” said Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance.

“By doing the work to develop a standardised application payload codec API, we are greatly simplifying the onboarding process, making it easier to integrate and deploy devices, and thereby facilitating massive LoRaWAN deployments.”

Donna Moore

She posits that this new specification eliminates yet another barrier to massive IoT with a new standards-based approach.

LoRaWAN payload codec API specification

When using LoRaWAN to transport application payloads, messages are very compactly encoded to minimize bandwidth usage. As messages reach the application server, they must be decoded to be read and processed.

Previously, each device manufacturer or application developer had to write a specific codec for each device and application platform pair, which created friction for device onboarding.

With the new payload codec API specification, a codec can be developed once and used on any application platform, achieving considerable savings in terms of reduced complexity and accelerated time to market.

The LoRaWAN Payload Codec API standardises an API for the JavaScript codecs for LoRaWAN devices to enable adoption by both device makers and application server vendors.

A standard codec provides the capability to decode uplinks/downlinks and to encode downlinks, allowing new LoRaWAN devices to be easily integrated into any compatible platform.

The post New LoRaWAN payload codec API to enable massive IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

IoT Analytics also reports record levels of VC investments for IoT firms, including acquisitions in the areas of AI and analytics. It is anticipated that despite headwinds like rising inflation and prolonged supply chain disruptions, overall sentiment will continue to be positive as the number of connected IoT devices reach 14.4 billion by the end of 2022.

With this growth, we can expect more targeted and perhaps creative ways of attacking both producers and enterprise consumers of IoT devices in the years ahead.

According to Satyajit Sinha, principal analyst for IoT Analytics, organisations tend to focus on security from a softer aspect or had network security at best.

“We have never seen security from the device aspect, and IoT demands different requirements of security such as authentication, authorisation, and identification. Most devices are secured through software security which is not adequate as they are vulnerable to attacks.”

Satyajit Sinha

“The more we create awareness about IoT devices security, the more people will implement security in their devices,” he added.

How adequately do you think current IoT ecosystems are secured, especially for unmanaged IoT devices?

Satyajit Sinha: The IoT devices do not have the capability to hold a higher level of security because of the power constraint thus security will always be a challenge. However, if these devices are connected to a gateway or a router, they can secure the touchpoint of the network and IoT ecosystems. It is not the case for small devices or unmanned devices.

Are concerns around IoT security justified? Or why does the IoT ecosystem require security?

Satyajit Sinha: People are focused on securing devices that create critical data, autonomous driving and intelligent devices for example. But this should not just be about selected devices.

A thermostat may not provide critical data so you may disregard whether it is secured or not. But, if it is linked to your home gateway, it is easy for someone to hack into your network and get all the information from all other connected devices.

What is the strategy that will secure IoT?

Satyajit Sinha: For hackers, it is a business. They will not invest their time and money in devices with multiple layers of security. So, the best strategy is to have multiple layers of security from hardware to software to network to cloud security. Connect these four and create end-to-end security, also called chip-to-cloud security.

What are the challenges or roadblocks to securing IoT end-to-end?

Satyajit Sinha: First is having the right policies and regulations. There needs to be proper regulations and direction for security implementation in the market. The second is industry sentiment.

"Treating security as an extra cost will incur a burden in the long term. We need to understand that if you don't spend on that extra secure element chip, you will have to pay more in a ransomware attack."

Satyajit Sinha

Last is device provisioning and key management services for chip-to-cloud security. It is difficult to manage security especially if you switch between service providers.

What are the key similarities and differences between traditional IT security and IoT Security?

Satyajit Sinha: The similarity I believe is that both are accountable not just at the OEM level but also platform and the cloud level. The difference is that it is new for the IT industry to manage IoT security with multiple applications. There are many standards, and numerous players come up with their own solutions.

How much is post-quantum security relevant for now?

Satyajit Sinha: All IoT devices have a lifespan of about 10 to 15 years which means they are not capable of quantum security in the long run. Security needs to be future proof and there is no extra cost for adding quantum-level security so organisations should consider having it.

Click on the PodChat player to listen to Sinha on the state of the security of IoT devices in Asia.

1. How adequately do you think current IoT ecosystems are secured, especially for unmanaged IoT devices?
2. Are concerns around IoT security justified? Or Why does the IoT ecosystem require security?
3. What is the strategy that will secure IoT?
4. What are the challenges or roadblocks to securing IoT end-to-end?
5. What are the key differences between traditional IT security and IoT Security?
6. How much is post-quantum security relevant for now?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Securing IoT beyond 2022 appeared first on FutureIoT.

A 5G transport network interconnects a 5G RAN and provides connectivity to the 5G mobile core network.

Various technologies can be deployed to support new 5G use cases within the 5G transport network. Among these are proven technologies such as Ethernet, and Ethernet VPN (as specified in prior Broadband Forum work such as TR-350, TR-224, and TR-221), as well as emerging technologies from Broadband Forum partners such as IEEE 802, ITU-T SG15 and IETF.

“5G cannot perform without the support of well-founded transport networks.  These transport networks must be prepared to support the vast number of use cases and services that can be realised with 5G with features including higher capacity, enhanced performance, and high reliability,” said David Sinicrope, Broadband Forum’s Access and Transport Architecture (ATA) Work Area Director.

“The publication of TR-521 provides a functional reference architecture, and equipment requirements for transport networks supporting 5G fronthaul and backhaul.”

“It benefits both operators in specifying what is expected of the transport equipment they procure and transport equipment vendors in deciding what to implement and how it will be used,” he added.

Broadband Forum has also released the specification, Mobile – Transport Network Slice Instance Management Interfaces (MMI) (TR-522) to address, as the name suggests, transport network slice management interfaces.

5G end-to-end slicing facilitates multiple logical self-contained networks on top of a common physical infrastructure platform.  In realising a 5G end-to-end slice, the 3GPP management system needs to be aligned with the corresponding transport network management to ensure that the desired performance, functionality, and connectivity are fulfilled.

TR-522 addresses the interfaces between 3GPP Management System and the Transport Network Managers helping to provide this alignment. Specifically, the work defines interfaces to support the configuration, assurance, monitoring and reconfiguration of 5G network slices in 5G networks.

Both specifications, along with accompanying Market Reports (MR-521.1 and MR-522) which explain the motivation for the work, have been completed by Broadband Forum’s Mobile Transport and Routing Project Stream within the Access & Transport Architecture (ATA) Work Area. 

The Mobile Transport and Routing Project Stream is responsible for the Forum’s mobile transport and routing architectural work, including the control, management, and data planes. These architectures leverage new industry technology and practices while protecting the investment in deployed networks.

The post New 5G transport specs to help support demanding 5G applications appeared first on FutureIoT.

Recognising this trend, the Commission is calling for organisations to take advantage of the decentralisation trends through IoT and edge computing capabilities, and leverage the expertise of its communities in the physical, industrial world and in digital world to bring the best of both worlds towards Europe’s next-generation IoT and edge computing infrastructure.

IDC says the IoT market in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) will continue to grow in 2022 by 9.1%, accelerating from 6.9% in 2021. Headwinds such as semiconductor shortages and supply chain disruption caused by geopolitical tensions have limited the growth in 2022 to single digits, and rising inflation may dampen growth.

However, rising demand for remote operations, better network coverage, and the deployment of commercial 5G and testbeds are driving IoT adoption in the region. IDC expects spending on IoT to reach $436 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 11.8% for the period 2021-2026.

IDC’s research director for Asia-Pacific, Bill Rojas, says the ongoing deployment and expansion of 5G will drive the growth of connectivity use cases that utilize massive narrowband IoT as well as wideband/broadband IoT such as 4K IP cameras.

“Low Earth Satellites including nanosatellites and next-generation Very High Throughput Satellites will enable a wide range of remote connectivity uses cases relating to smart cities, environmental and sustainability monitoring, transportation infrastructure, energy and resources, and utilities.”

Bill Rojas

FutureIoT reached out to Kenny Ng, head of worldwide market development, network business division at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise for his take on where IoT is headed in Asia.

Do you think a decoupling of IoT hardware from software would further accelerate the adoption of IoT in the enterprise or is this a case of a solution looking for a problem to solve?

Kenny Ng: IoT adoption requires a holistic approach to meeting business needs in the digital transformation process. It will require a solution-based approach rather than approaching it from the decoupling of hardware and software.

However, there are a few challenges to surmount for enterprises in the IoT sector, including having a short time to market, airtight security, a versatile update mechanism for hardware and software and mastering device management.

Businesses need to evaluate hardware and software IoT choices pragmatically for their needs, but finding a cost-effective product that satisfies all requirements can be difficult.

For IoT-related projects, knowing the specific use case is essential to identifying the most applicable hardware. Careful software selection is also important, centring around ease of integration and maintenance.

What business problems/customer expectations are ideally suited for IoT?

Kenny Ng: IoT serves as a critical foundation and enabler for digital business processes. It also offers enormous value to businesses undergoing digital transformation. The connectivity provides also benefits enterprises that rely on collecting and processing large amounts of real-time data.

In a world where efficiency is key, IoT is best suited to enable enterprises to harness the data available at their fingertips to derive value-driven insights that can optimise workflows for better outcomes and accelerate business transformation.

As the pandemic boosted the digital transformation and sprouted the number of devices connected through IoT everywhere, the public sector saw an opportunity to leverage IoT capabilities to meet customer expectations and enhance processes and efficiency in everyday life.

IoT has the capability to transform the public sector, by significantly reshaping how governments keep track of data and information and harnessing mobility, automation and data analytics.

For you, what would constitute next-generation (next-gen) IoT?

Kenny Ng: Next-generation IoT would need to be holistic and enable organisations to scale up their digitalisation efforts securely with ease to welcome the age of digital networking. According to IoT analytics, there will be 30.9 billion IoT devices by 2030, making 75% of total devices.

With the growth of mobility and IoT, security is skyrocketing to become a top priority as networks become even more exposed to potential bad actors. And, with cyber-attacks increasing in volume and in complexity, unregulated devices can introduce security risks and chew up bandwidth unbeknownst to network operators.

With the sheer number of devices in a connected network, configuring and managing so many individual devices is unrealistic. Approaches like IoT containment must thus become more commonplace, where devices can be efficiently and safely onboarded via automation.

The ability to rapidly identify and classify every object connected to the network and automatically provision a configuration associated with a specific device, alongside virtual segmentation, are also crucial characteristics that must be present in next-gen IoT. Monitoring the objects is vital so that immediate action can be taken if there is unusual activity on the network, thus containing the impact and scale of a potential cyberattack.

Do you think culture and mindset are mature enough to accept these next-gen IoT solutions/technologies to realise real business value today?

Kenny Ng: While next-generation IoT does pose a complex challenge for enterprises, it offers massive versatility in the automation and optimisation of business processes.

Particularly after COVID-19, digitalisation has been at the top of many organisational agendas and has become a widely recognised priority in industries across the board. Though risk-averse enterprises may hesitate to make the leap when it comes to emerging technologies, organisations with a disruptor and agile mindset will be able to effect change and realise these benefits. This change in mindset must start from the top, with business leaders and decision-makers leading by example before it can become a part of their corporate DNA.

Once culture and mindsets have matured, then can concrete actions be taken to enact definite change. To unlock the potential of next-gen IoT, time and resources must be invested into building a skilled IoT workforce, such that the technology can be fully and strategically harnessed to drive core business competencies.

For those who may be limited by budget or resource constraints, an intelligent network fabric tackles this pain point by automating various manual tasks to simplify a network’s design, deployment, and operations. Automation also reduces the risks of vulnerabilities associated with manual errors.

How do you create an environment that will encourage IoT adoption and innovation within an enterprise? Who needs to own it?

Kenny Ng: As mentioned, enterprises will need to have the mindset for accepting change and embracing innovation, and this needs to start with the leaders. They will also need to invest in training a robust IT team to aid the secure operation and maintenance of IoT deployments.

The responsibility will lie with the senior leadership of the enterprises to instigate change from the top-down. IT leaders must transparently communicate both benefits and challenges of IoT adoption and push for ongoing education to overcome employees’ inertia towards change and help them understand the impact and implications of the organisation adopting IoT.

For instance, getting the message across that IoT help automate operations and streamline infrastructure, which in turn, can ease the workloads of employees may help to get their buy-ins.

The key also lies in cultivating an organisational culture and mentality that is comfortable with calculated risks. Every new technological adoption comes with its own sets of associated risks, but organisations that stay ready to mitigate risks will enhance their agility and responsiveness, and in turn their ability to compete.

Being comfortable with risk will also encourage new methods of trying out things, ultimately forming an enterprise environment that drives business innovation and constant evolution.

The post Shaping the digital future with the Next-Gen of IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network technologies, such as 3GPP standards like LTE-M and NB-IoT, offer long-range communications with broad coverage, the ability to handle a large number of devices and low power consumption to IoT devices to operate for 10 years or more.

Relay allows for battery-operated, easy-to-deploy network coverage extensions at a fraction of the cost of adding additional gateways.

Challenges however remain. Participants in a VDC Research-sponsored study, identified several challenges related to IoT system development using LPWA including 1) minimizing power consumption; 2) securing IoT data; 3) lowering project development time, and 4) reducing the total cost of ownership.

Working on the problem, the global association of companies backing the open LoRaWAN standard for the internet of things (IoT) low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), the LoRa Alliance has expanded the LoRaWAN link-layer standard with the addition of a relay specification.

This allows LoRaWAN to achieve excellent coverage in use cases requiring deep indoor or underground coverage, or relay data on satellite-connected LoRaWAN devices within proximity.

“LoRa Alliance members identified that end users in specific markets needed a solution to achieve full network coverage due to environmental challenges surrounding their deployments,” said Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance.

“With relay, we’re providing a standardized solution that allows for full end-to-end communications in the extremely challenging underground, metal and concrete environments where sensor signals could use a boost or redirect to reach either the gateway or end-device.”

Donna Moore

She added that the new relay feature is a direct response to market needs and provides an essential building block to enable massive IoT.

Relay use cases

One of the first markets to adopt relay is metering in the utility sector. Utilities represent a massive opportunity for IoT, with VDC Research estimating that worldwide LPWAN communication services revenue will reach $2.47 billion by 2025.

Adding relay to the LoRaWAN standard to achieve coverage for even the most difficult cases (e.g., meters inside metal closets) significantly strengthens LoRaWAN’s market position in metering and utilities, and more broadly across key verticals including smart cities and buildings, and industrial IoT.

Using a relay is ideal for any application monitoring static assets in challenging environments.

LoRaWAN relay feature

The LoRaWAN standard is proven for long-range communications, however, there can be physical limits to where LPWAN communications can reach, such as around turns, underground, where a signal needs to be reflected/relayed into a specific location, etc. LoRaWAN relays allow signals to go where they physically couldn’t go before.

The LoRaWAN TS011-1.0.0 LoRaWAN Relay Specification document describes the relaying mechanism used to transport LoRaWAN frames bi-directionally between an end-device and gateway/network server via a battery-operated node. By enabling relay, the device can transfer LoRaWAN frames between an end device and network when there is insufficient coverage from the gateway.

This specification enables Network coverage extension through the battery-operated relay and maintains compatibility with the LoRaWAN Link-Layer standard in terms of protocol and security. The new relay nodes are battery-powered and can be installed anywhere and do not require electricity or internet connectivity. This makes them a very easy-to-deploy, low cost and low-power way to extend network coverage, without needing to add additional gateways. Relay endpoints allow LoRaWAN to provide coverage of all devices with only a nominal cost of installation.

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One of the earliest examples of IoT was in the early 1980s and it involved a Coca-Cola machine that was located at Carnegie Mellon University. Programmers would connect through the Internet to the refrigerated appliance and check to see if there was a cold drink available before making the trip to purchase one.

Most discussions around the IoT will likely revolve around the hardware. This is understandable that most of the enterprise IoT technologies we’ve become familiar with are with simple devices that perform a few tasks. For example, monitor the temperature in a production line.

But as advances in communications converge with business demands for doing things faster, better, more safely and cheaper, even technologies like IoT are evolving to include features that in some cases incorporate intelligence, manageability, and more recently, security.

This growing sophistication in the demand for IoT and expectations of what it can do means that IoT discussion is no longer limited to hardware design but must, by default, include software considerations.

FutureIoT spoke to Joanne Wong, vice president for international markets at LogRhythm, for her take on how IoT software is evolving.

What is IoT software?

Joanne Wong: Anything from lamp posts and running shoes to fish tanks can now be connected to the Internet with the advent of inexpensive computer chips, sensors, and wireless networks, which enables them to collect and share data in real-time autonomously without human interference.

IoT software connects the computer chips, sensors and networks in the broader system together. It plays a crucial role in the data collection and communication process, as well as the management of the IoT application and device itself.

Take smart lamp posts for example. The Singapore government plans to roll out 110,000 lamp posts equipped with a network of wireless sensors and cameras that will help to detect and monitor changes in environmental conditions, and track vehicle speeds – beyond illuminating the streets.

In this case, the IoT software controls the systems such that imagery and traffic data collected from the sensors and cameras are communicated to the central management system in the cloud, which is then turned into actionable insights.

Looking back from pre-pandemic to this period (mid-August 2022), how have things changed when it comes to IoT software?

Joanne Wong: The IoT software market has grown significantly over the past few years, in tandem with the accelerating adoption of IoT solutions and devices. While the sector was briefly affected during the pandemic due to a pause in technology spending for certain sectors, it has since regained much of its initial momentum. IDC predicts IoT spending in Asia Pacific to reach US$437 billion by 2025.

Over the years, IoT solutions have become more powerful and efficient, thanks to advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), edge computing, automation and other emerging technologies. Machine learning algorithms, for example, can add predictive capabilities to IoT solutions.

For example, sensors attached to machines in the manufacturing sector can monitor the performance of the equipment and predict when failures and breakdowns will happen. Having access to such information early on allows for the repair or replacement of faulty parts, to prevent wide-scale operational disruptions.

On the other hand, edge computing technology makes IoT devices with onboard analytics capabilities possible. This brings computing as close as possible to the source of data, reducing network latency and relieving network congestion, thus allowing for quick delivery of insights to the end user. On top of that, as personal data no longer needs to leave the individual domain, a lot of data privacy and security concerns with IoT can now be mitigated.

IoT as a service (IoTaaS) offerings have also emerged as a new way for businesses to access IoT solutions. Vendors such as Microsoft are moving towards offering IoT platform management services, which allows businesses to leverage IoT software and infrastructure without having to invest heavily into building the network architecture hardware, purchasing expensive software, or hiring trained personnel to manage the process.

In the period of accelerating digital transformation, which areas of IoT software have gained importance?

Joanne Wong: IoT security has become crucial for organisations looking to successfully implement IoT solutions.  This is because digital transformation acceleration has led to an influx of devices coming online. With the exponential growth in the number of devices now connected to the internet, the attack surface has also gotten significantly larger.

Opportunistic cybercriminals now have more entry points – from insecure connections, and legacy devices to weak digital links – to take control of these IoT devices to spread malware or gain direct access into the network to obtain critical data.

For IoT devices, the risks are doubly high for two reasons. Firstly, IoT devices typically do not come with in-built security functions, which makes them an easy target for hackers. Secondly, IoT devices, especially those that are small or light, can be easily misplaced or stolen. Unauthorised users who have gained physical possession of the devices can easily access your network.

This is also why cybersecurity is now a huge area of focus for IoT devices and software. On the other hand, failure to secure IoT ecosystems could lead to eroding trust in their potential across the organisation, as well as wasted investment costs. 

More technology providers are now adopting the “security by design” approach to IoT hardware and software development, which looks at building security features right from the initial developmental stage.

Cybersecurity platform vendors too are adding specific security features to IoT data collection and storage functions, to safeguard sensitive data flowing between the IoT device and network from unauthorised access.

Which industry sectors in Asia are leading the charge in terms of IoT software adoption and development?

Joanne Wong: With the worldwide pandemic over the past two years, organisations in healthcare are understandably one of the most active areas of IoT development. According to Data Bridge Market Research, the IoT APAC healthcare market is predicted to grow with a CAGR of 30.55% between 2022 to 2029. This applies broadly to the rise in telemedicine adoption and narrowing down to connected specialised equipment, all while accommodating to recent lifestyle changes.

Medical professionals are now able to collect patient data and understand patient conditions, without the risk of large group interactions. Healthcare IoT equipment inherently addresses the areas of shortage in hospitals, where necessary patient care and attention are provided for those in dire need. Additionally, it accelerates and improves access to healthcare services, especially reaching remote areas, beyond the pandemic.

Supply chain management is another sector thriving from IoT adoption. Frost & Sullivan highlighted that almost 21% of logistics companies in Asia currently leverage IoT for their fleet management solutions and this number is only set to increase in the next few years.

Industrial IoT has been the driver for parallel growth in smart manufacturing which includes factory automation, GPS shipment tracking and machine-to-people communications. The ease of data collection and real-time data encourages calculated risk-taking, allowing organisations to maximise opportunities for growth and revenue — more data, and more cost savings. For instance, better forecasting of demand, ship and fleet tracking and better risk management.

What needs to happen for organisations in Asia for us to see greater integration of IoT software in industrial settings?

Joanne Wong: With new manufacturing and smart city initiatives underway, there are numerous opportunities for greater integration of IoT software and the development of horizontal capabilities across industrial settings. This includes predictive maintenance and connected operational intelligence in manufacturing, as well as security and surveillance for smart cities.

However, closing the gaps in IoT security will be key to maximising the potential of IoT across industries and areas of operation. With more devices now connected to the internet, greater interconnection can pose higher cybersecurity risks for these industries.

It is more important than ever that organisations maintain clear oversight across their entire digital supply chain, including their IoT endpoints, to ensure that there is constant monitoring and surveillance for potential threats.

Companies should seek to redefine security ownership within the organisation to improve the management of IoT devices. Currently, IoT security falls under both the security and operations function - which may lead to confusion on whose responsibility it falls under.

At the same time, companies should also ensure that the adoption of security solutions is also compatible with the business needs — adapting to network changes, and automatically detecting, predicting, and responding to real-time threats.

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This was one of the key takeaways from a newly released global study entitled “The Race to Decarbonization”, which evaluate progress companies have made in pursuing  their sustainability goals.  Forrester Consulting in collaboration with Johnson Controls conducted an online survey in September 2021, polling over 2,348 sustainability strategy leaders in 25 countries  and across 19 industries.

“The survey clearly shows that business leaders in Southeast Asia see sustainability as the number one business priority now. And among the different key sustainability initiatives, energy efficient buildings and workspaces is high on the agenda, with 91% deeming this an investment priority within three years," said Charles Lim, leader, Southeast Asia, Johnson Controls. “More than three quarters of respondents have goals to reduce carbon emissions across their portfolio of buildings by 26% or more; and 11% are gunning for net zero or carbon negative.”

The global survey found that North America is the most aggressive with their carbon reduction goals. While the urgency among the private sector is picking up in Southeast Asia, more is needed. The ASEAN State of Climate Change Report noted that “there are still large gaps in implementation and ambition” based on emission reduction targets in 2030 and emission trends up to now.

Where to start a challenge

Although organisations recognise the benefits of implementing sustainability practices, many companies do not know where to start in preparing for critical business transformations. Top five hurdles today relate to managing multiple parties involved, lacking strategic plan, lacking external partners, understanding of changing policy requirements, and struggling to scale up.

The survey further found that only 18% of respondents in Southeast Asia have ESG reporting software to help measure their progress while 41% of respondents believe their organizations have a shortage of internal expertise, preventing them from tracking their carbon emissions effectively.

"In the race to decarbonisation, companies must align priorities to the demands of many stakeholders, work with partners to develop transparent sustainability roadmaps, and identify  metrics and adopt tools to track progress," said Mei Peng Hor, business development director, sustainable infrastructure, Asia Pacific, Johnson Controls.

She added: "More customers are looking for ways to make this process easier, and are transferring their sustainability commitments and the risk to reach these targets to an external partner that has the capability, scale and ecosystem. Our OpenBlue Net Zero Buildings as a Service, for example, has helped the University of Hawaii reduce energy use by 80% across four campuses, saving US$80 million, through energy retrofit and renewable energy solutions."

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The testbeds are guided by Singapore’s Technical Reference (TR) 93, the new national guidelines that seek to harmonise data exchanges between autonomous robots and building infrastructure for effective deployment through horizontal and vertical spaces.

“As a smart and Caring General Hospital, we innovate and collaborate widely within and beyond healthcare to create new value, benefit our communities, and contribute to the nation's efforts in Research, Innovation and Enterprise,” said Professor Ng Wai Hoe, chief executive officer, CGH.

He added: “The invaluable partnerships with CLI, KONE, Enterprise Singapore and other industry players enable us to leapfrog healthcare solutions to new ground and open up endless possibilities. We are excited that RoMi-H, which first started as a solution for healthcare, can now be integrated with smart infrastructure, potentially accelerating the scaling up of automation and robotics technologies in Singapore and the world."

Touted as the world’s first, the standardised RoMi-H, short for Robotics Middleware for Healthcare, has paved the way for multiple robots with different proprietary systems from different technology providers to communicate and sync together through common data exchanges.

RoMi-H  is developed by CGH's Centre for Healthcare Assistive and Robotics Technologies (CHART) and other partners.

Now, by enabling integration with the building infrastructure through efficient communications with lifts and doorways, these various robots can travel autonomously and safely through indoor and outdoor spaces and gain access to various storeys in a multi-storey building.

These crucial developments led by cross-industry efforts are a boost to Singapore's robotics ecosystem in line with the national Research, Innovation, and Enterprise 2025 plans, as they help to reduce the time and costs needed to integrate robots with buildings, enhance efficiencies, support the safe deployment of robots within dynamic environments, as well as create new opportunities and jobs.

First-of-its-kind testbeds

Leveraging CGH's technology expertise and CLI's global network of partners through its Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab, the first-of-its-kind testbeds are designed to enable industry players to interface RoMi-H with KONE's next-generation lifts, which comes with cloud connectivity capabilities and open application programming interface (API) that is aligned with TR 93.

Heartbeat @ Bedok is one of the testbed sites, where CGH and KONE have successfully integrated robots with a next-generation lift.

The other testbed site at The Galen at Singapore Science Park 2, provides a realistic, accessible and secure operating environment for companies to "plug and play" their own technologies and test the integration with lifts. This will allow building owners in any sector to interweave functions of diverse robots into complex operational workflows.

Over 25 local and international industry players have shown interest to be part of the testbed, and more technology players, start-ups, SMEs, as well as adopters including facility management companies, are expected to join and benefit from this initiative in the near future.

“Our collaboration with CGH and KONE allows us to further advance innovation by bringing partners from our global network to testbed cutting-edge robotics solutions for the built environment industry,” said Aylwin Tan, chief customer solutions officer, CLI, and director of Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab.

He added that CLI has been at the forefront of innovation in support of the Singapore's efforts to build a smart and sustainable city.

“As Southeast Asia's first industry-led lab for smart cities solutions development, our Smart Urban Co-Innovation Lab has engaged with over 700 companies across a wide range of industries to identify opportunities and co-create solutions for smart sustainable cities,” said Tan.

New standard in syncing robots with building infrastructure

RoMi-H has been successfully test bedded for deployment at public sector hospitals and at COVID-19 Treatment Facilities to augment operations and care. Its innovative interface enables robots to navigate autonomously in human-rich environments, proactively and independently de-conflict their navigation routes with robots of different makes across narrow common pathways, and execute their individual tasks in a co-ordinated manner. This also allows for a universal charging system and fleet management to be developed so that the different robots can be more efficiently managed.

Furthermore, the development of the TR93 standards provide guidance to robot manufacturers and building owners in deploying multiple robots in smart buildings and accelerate the take-up of robotics technologies in multi-storey buildings.

TR93  was driven by CGH's CHART and local engineering firm HOPE Technik, and supported by the National Robotics Programme and Enterprise Singapore.

With the ability to integrate autonomous robots with next-generation lifts and automated doorways, technology providers, system integrators and building owners can explore and easily adopt the innovative use of robotics technologies in buildings.

Choy Sauw Kook, director-general (Quality & Excellence), Enterprise Singapore, said: "The Singapore Standards Council, overseen by Enterprise Singapore, is proud to have worked with CHART and various stakeholders to enhance the integration and adoption of safe and effective robotics solutions through the development of TR 93. We envision that this new standard will help spur more deployment of robots in the built environment as it provides a common data interchange platform for various system and equipment providers to work together."

KONE, on the other hand, is proud to be a key contributor to the development of TR 93.

“New technologies, such as in the area of robotics, are rapidly changing the way our customers construct and operate buildings. We have increased investments in advanced technologies and broadened our digital capabilities to collaborate and co-innovate with different stakeholders in the built environment sector. We see great opportunities to progress our efforts in Singapore, with its strong focus to be a smart and sustainable nation,” said Samer Halabi, executive vice president, KONE Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa.

Forging vibrant partnerships in East Coast

Meanwhile,  CGH and CLI – the two of the founding partners of Vibrant @ East Coast – joined forces with KONE, to co-create innovative solutions to benefit communities and industries under the East Coast Vibrant Community Footprints

The official launch of the partnership was witnessed by Guest-of-Honour, Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, Chairman of the National Research Foundation and Adviser to East Coast Group Representation Constituency (GRC) at Heartbeat @ Bedok.

CGH and CLI also signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create co-innovation and deployment opportunities to drive discovery, adaptation and adoption of smart cities solutions, and develop initiatives to excite, educate and engage the community in health and wellness. Innovations arising from the partnership are expected to overcome common challenges, increase productivity and help the industry, including small-and medium-sized enterprises (SME), to grow.

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Called AI Verify, the self-test toolkit aims to promote transparency between companies and their stakeholders through a combination of technical tests and process checks. The is developed by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC).

“It is another step forward in Singapore’s AI development. This will promote greater public trust towards the use of AI. We invite industry partners from all around the world to join us in this pilot and contribute to building international standards in AI governance,” said Josephine Teo, Singapore’s minister for communications and information, at annual meeting last Wednesday of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, Switzerland.

Globally, testing for the trustworthiness for AI systems is an emergent space. As more companies use AI in their products and services, fostering public’s trust in AI technologies remains key in unlocking the transformative opportunities of AI.

Objective and verifiable testing process

Developers and owners can verify the claimed performance of their AI systems against a set of principles through standardised tests. A.I. Verify packages a set of open-source testing solutions together, including a set of process checks into a toolkit for convenient self-assessment.

The toolkit will generate reports for developers, management, and business partners, covering major areas affecting AI performance. The toolkit will transparently show how the AI model claims fared against  test results in areas such as: on the use of AI to achieve what stated outcome; understanding how the AI model reaches a decision; and, whether the decisions predicted by the AI show unintended bias

The toolkit will also assess the safety and resilience, as well as the accountability and oversight of AI systems.

“Rapid digitisation has led to a proliferation of data and improved algorithms. As companies across sectors continue to innovate, this toolkit will enable them to turn concepts of responsible and trustworthy AI into practical applications,” said Chia Song Hwee, deputy CEO, Temasek International and member of Singapore’s Advisory Council on the Ethical Use of AI and Data, which guided the development of the toolkit.

Positive industry feedback

Already, 10 companies from different sectors and of different scale, have already tested and/or provided feedback. These companies are AWS, DBS Bank, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Singapore Airlines, NCS (Part of Singtel Group)/Land Transport Authority, Standard Chartered Bank, UCARE.AI, and X0PA.AI.

“As organisations worldwide continue to harness data and drive increased adoption of AI-based solutions, it is more important than ever to establish the guardrails to ensure this is done responsibly. Singapore has, for some time now, been at the forefront in developing the thinking around the important and emergent subject of AI governance,” said Piyush Gupta, group CEO, DBS Group.

According to Pier Luigi Culazzo, group chief data officer at Standard Chartered Bank, the development of the AI Governance Testing Framework is an integral progress to Singapore’s vision of building a robust digital economy.

“From integration with other jurisdictions to standardisation across industries, the use of IMDA’s framework will go towards enhancing accountability and transparency of the AI ecosystem in Singapore, motivating more organisations to deploy AI responsibly,” said Culazzo.

George Wang, senior vice president – information technology at Singapore Airlines said: “We brought our strong data science and AI expertise and capabilities to IMDA’s AI Governance Testing framework, contributing to efforts to make it a Minimal Viable Product. Through this partnership, we gained insights that enhance our own digital capabilities.”

Singapore’s Land Transport Authority, which participated in the pilot together with its partner NCS, expressed optimism over the AI Governance self-test.

“The Land Transport Authority is in the nascent stage of exploring the use of AI to augment our work processes, and we are mindful that there should be clear guidelines and processes in place for safe and responsible application of the technology,” said agency chief executive Ng Lang.

IMDA is also working together with the U.S. Department of Commerce to build interoperable AI governance frameworks. Beyond the pilot stage of the MVP, Singapore aims to work with AI system owners/developers globally to collate and build industry benchmark, which will enable the city to continue contributing to the development of international standards on AI governance.

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Launched in May 2020, OpenRoaming is a multi-vendor initiative to provide a better bridge between mobile and Wi-Fi networks It is a roaming federation service enabling an automatic and secure Wi-Fi experience globally.

With OpenRoaming, telecommunications service providers will be able to ensure their users get onto Wi-Fi seamlessly and securely the second they walk into a participating location. Users will be able to employ their mobile carrier identity for authentication, granting them seamless access to participating wireless networks around the world to ensure they are always connected.

The OpenRoaming standard frees users from the need to constantly re-register or re-enter log-in credentials and provides performance guarantees and quality of experience (QoE) capabilities as users roam between different public/private Wi-Fi realms. Most importantly, it removes hurdles to get users onboarded and increases opportunities for engagement

“In just 18 months, WBA OpenRoaming has already surpassed 1 million hotspots worldwide. That’s a major milestone — one that highlights how quickly the marketplace has recognised the benefits for network operators, infrastructure vendors, device OEMs and end users. It also reflects demand driven by the emergence of private 5G networks requiring simple roaming between cellular and Wi-Fi,” said Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of WBA.

OpenRoaming transforms the Wi-Fi experience for consumers and businesses and opens up opportunities for broadband and the Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity across business verticals, including retail, hospitality, education, smart cities, automotive and aviation, among many others.

Rodrigues added: “But this milestone is just the beginning. We expect to see even more types of locations adopt WBA OpenRoaming, including hotels, cafés, trains, planes and connected cars. In fact, in our most recent cross-industry survey, 40% of businesses said they have implemented Passpoint/OpenRoaming or plan to do so before the end of this year. Wherever you work, live and play, OpenRoaming will be there.”

To date, WBA revealed that OpenRoaming  hotspots have been deployed in wide variety of venues, including airports, universities, stadiums/arenas, office buildings and municipalities. Examples include San Jose State University, Fira Barcelona Gran Via, Canary Wharf, London Stadium, Live Nation BottleRock Festival,  Brazil’s São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport and various European municipalities and tourist destinations enabled by Boingo, Cisco, CommScope, Extreme Networks  and other members of the federation.

A recent proof of concept deployment by WBA member, Airties, to automatically onboard Wi-Fi client devices to a residential Wi-Fi 6 network also paves the way for the rollout of OpenRoaming across in-home Wi-Fi networks.

Wi-Fi makes cellular better

According to WBA,  OpenRoaming is creating an open connectivity framework for all organizations in the wireless ecosystem to power new opportunities in the 5G era.

Many industry insiders have said that 5G will make Wi-Fi  redundant. In truth, however, both cellular (licensed spectrum) and Wi-Fi networks complement each other, as Wi-Fi can pick up some of the load from cellular networks. The challenge is to simplify the user experience by managing the hand-off between them in a way that works seamlessly for consumers while still benefiting the carriers.

The new local wireless standard, Wi-Fi 6, is an ideal counterpart to the emerging 5G network. Wi-Fi 6 brings higher data rates, lower latency, increased capacity, and even better battery life to mobile devices.

The combination of Wi-Fi 6 and 5G will unlock potential in the network for exciting new services and products: virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, 4K video, and even more sophisticated IoT devices. Ensuring a seamless experience across 5G and Wi-Fi, indoors and outdoors, will be more important than ever.

OpenRoaming has been adopted by most major Wi-Fi equipment vendors and device OEMs. Federation members include Adentro, Airties, Boingo, Broadcom, Cisco, Cityroam, Cloud4WI, Commscope, eduroam, Enea, Extreme Networks, GlobalReach, Intel, Kyrio Samsung, Single Digits, and many others among the growing ecosystem.

Meanwhile, WBA also launched yesterday Release 3 of OpenRoaming, which will cut back on hundreds of hours of legal and administrative time when establishing roaming settlement agreements. This will make the business and commercial aspects of roaming easier than ever before.

Release 3 includes a significant improvement on the legal and commercial framework providing the ability to implement a new templated approach, making commercial arrangements between federation members simpler and easy to scale. Dynamic settlement capabilities make it possible for rate variations to be varied at peak times.

“By introducing Release 3 to remove barriers to adoption, OpenRoaming is cementing its place as a foundational piece of wireless technology,” said Matt MacPherson, Wireless CTO, Cisco.

In addition, Release 3 has been enhanced to include automated tools, reporting and API’s to significantly reduce the overhead for management and administration of an OpenRoaming network, while providing an online portal for federation members to self-serve. Enhanced Identity Proofing has also been enabled so that identity providers are able to meet regulatory and legislative requirements as well as corporate and business needs.

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This IATF 16949:2016 standard is one of the most widely used in the automotive industry – and one of the most difficult for manufacturers to meet, which highlights VIAVI’s commitment to supporting Tier 1 automotive suppliers.

IATF 16949 emphasises the development of a process-oriented quality management system that provides for continual improvement, defect prevention and reduction of variation and waste in the supply chain.

IATF reviewed 12 months of production data to assess the VIAVI quality management system at its Suzhou, China, facility.

“Many companies have been struggling to meet this standard’s stringent requirements. The fact that we did highlights our company’s robust internal controls and strong process orientation, which ensures that our customers receive the consistently high quality and performance that they depend on,” said Luke Scrivanich, senior vice president and general manager, Optical Security & Performance Products, VIAVI.

Since 2012, VIAVI has produced more than 200 million optical filters for mission-critical applications such as automotive LiDAR for crash avoidance. Tier 1 automotive suppliers use VIAVI thin-film-based light management technologies to maximise the performance of their sensing solutions.

VIAVI optical filters can improve a LiDAR system’s signal-to-noise ratio by up to 150%, helping to protect drivers, passengers, vehicles and cargo against avoidable accidents. These optical filters also have features that are crucial for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles, such as a square bandpass to maximise accuracy.

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The entry of insurtech has also opened new avenues for insurers to market products, in some cases, create totally new offerings in new locations, not possible with the conventional model for marketing insurance.

Concirrus CEO Andrew Yeoman acknowledged that the pandemic has challenged the insurance industry business model in Asia. He commented that COVID-19 has given the industry problems and opportunities.

"It's given us a problem because operating a business where you're we've been predominantly used to doing face to face work, and then trying to do that remotely has been challenging. And clearly, there's going to need to be some investment going forwards in some of that backend office and infrastructure. The very manual methods of perhaps processing policies have been challenged," he added.

IoT-led innovations in insurance

According to the IMARC Group report, IoT Insurance Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027, the global IoT insurance market reached a value of US$20.2 Billion in 2021. The Internet of Things (IoT) insurance refers to a technological solution that collects, transmits, and shares data of the client to insurance companies.

Yeoman acknowledges that IoT is creeping in everywhere. "Everything that we see in touch with seems to be monitored these days. What we're starting to slowly see is that the insurers are building products around that," he added.

"We're seeing it rising everywhere at the same time, both in personal lines and in commercial lines. And really the most exciting part of it is that it gives you some that hyper-personalised proposition so around how you work, how you're behaving and how you're driving."

The value proposition of IoT in insurance

IoT brings with it data not previously available to insurers. Yeoman commented that the data represents the behaviour, in the form of how, where, and when, of the asset. He cited the example of vehicular insurance. Where traditional insurance would mean that the insurer would only have a record of an incident during an insurance claim, embedded insurance describes a behaviour that is a far better indicator of risk than the static factors that have been used previously.

According to Yeoman, from the insurer's perspective, the data that they get from IoT devices will allow for disaggregation of risk. He posited that using data gathered by IoT devices, insurers can price their products and services to the risk profile of the insured.

"The secondary benefit that it also provides is the concept of nudge behaviour. I think that notion of those additional benefits changes our relationship with an insurer from just being somebody that's there, when things go wrong, to somebody that can help me live a healthier life," he added.

Supporting the operations of insurers

Beyond the embedding of IoT into insurance products, Yeoman says insurance companies make their living off managing the risks of the insured. He cited the example of insured vehicles – that under the traditional business model, the insurer has no awareness of where an insured vehicle is at any given time, whether it is on the road or parked somewhere, the road conditions and the driving habits or pattern of the driver.

He posited that the insurer would not know how many risks the insurance company is taking during the lifetime of the policy. IoT quantifies some of these risks and provides a granularity of risks down to the individual policy owner.

Importance of data

To realise that example of automotive insurance, it is important that data from IoT devices are collected and processed according to a pre-defined workflow.

To succeed in integrating IoT into the insurance business model, Yeoman says it is important to have a very clear understanding of what their business model is going to be, how that's going to scale, and how they can adopt such a business model.

He posited that insurers would need to be willing to experiment and be able to adapt to what works for them. "They need to see what's acceptable to their policyholders. And they need to do that quickly. I think the short, sharp, focused experience. What can we learn? We call it fail-fast," he commented.

Managing the unknown – IoT skills, experience, and expertise

Yeoman noted that insurers are used to dealing with data – much of it recorded on paper. With an IoT-led insurance model,

Clearly, if you go in with an IoT enabled proposition, you might take on a new supply chain, you might have to buy hardware, you might have to have connectivity issues in terms of SIM cards or other sorts of network connectivity. And you need a supply chain to then say, both procure those but then get those shipped out or installed with a customer or whichever. I think that in terms of the insurance expertise, depending on the particular business case, and the line of business that going into, clearly, it changes the need of an insurer, what skills they need in that supply chain. My one-sentence advice is, don't build that in-house, just partner with somebody who's an expert in that.

Click on the PodChat player to hear Yeoman's insights and recommendations around how the insurance industry can meet the evolving challenges using IoT.

1. How has the insurance industry in Asia evolved in the last five years?
2. It can be argued that IoT is still relatively new as applied in insurance. Can you cite one or two recent innovations around the use of IoT in insurance?
3. What is the value proposition of IoT in the provision of insurance products and services?
4. There are two aspects of IoT that need to be addressed in insurance: risk management and the other is around data privacy and protection.
   1. How are insurers using IoT to better manage their risks? (insight into behavioural analysis)
   1. In your observation, is the understanding of IoT technology, sufficiently mature around data privacy and protection?
5. How important is having a clear business model to benefit from IoT data? And how can businesses adopt such a model?
   1. What skills, expertise, and experience must an insurer have access to benefit from the use of IoT?
   1. When looking to tap IoT, what questions should leadership ask their CIO/CTO to ensure they are in the right direction and frame of mind?
6. What does Concirrus bring to the table?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Redefining insurance with IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

“The EU’s General Food Law, Canada’s SFCA (Safe Food for Canadians Act), and the United States’ FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) are driving adoption for supply chain traceability solutions, as navigating greater regulatory scrutiny is critical for firms across the value chain wishing to access these large food markets,” said Abdullah Haider, IoT markets research analyst at ABI Research.

He added:  “For countries that have yet to implement end-to-end traceability mandates, the insight of other regional countries which have already done so serves as a blueprint for companies to better adjust to future regulatory changes based on past experience.”

In its new research on asset visibility in the food and beverages supply chain, the ABI Research cited Europe and North America for leading the move towards food traceability.  But many countries in Asia Pacific and rest of the world regions are looking to roll-out their own systems to avoid being left out of the lucrative food export market.

Evolving food safety regulations

Spurred by voluntary industry standards, the regulations have evolved to react to food safety incidents, localise food recall, and meet export requirements.

According to ABI Research, industry players throughout the food and beverages supply chain are adjusting to the regulatory changes and adopting technology which meets the legal baseline both for domestic food production as well as for food imports and exports, while simultaneously looking to benefit their bottom line. The direct impact of traceability is greater implementations for full supply chain visibility, a growing topic of interest for food networks worldwide.

The latest research sees emerging countries paying particular attention as they seek to develop their food industry, while countries with more established industries such as Japan and South Korea also aim to tackle the challenge for domestic food markets. As the market for food traceability systems becomes more penetrated in Europe and North America, specialist software companies offering digital record-keeping will start focusing their efforts on the much more fragmented markets in the APAC and ROW regions.

Companies leveraging batch-level traceability will find it easier to manage a food incident by having a local batch recall rather than nationwide product recall.

“Traceability regulations are transforming food supply chains. While the regulatory environment in both North America and Europe is relatively certain, and implementation is expected to accelerate, countries in Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World can learn lessons from industry-led initiatives in Europe and North America, including voluntary associations to accelerate their timeline and address hurdles such as scale and scope of traceability based on different food and beverage items, laying a strong foundation for supply chain visibility that can be leveraged for many more use-cases like Real-Time Transport Visibility beyond the initial regulatory compliance layer,” said Haider.

The research analyses historic, current, and future trends in traceability mandates and industry initiatives, key data requirements, level of responsibility of different actors along the supply chain, and methods of data collection and storage. In addition, the research looks at the implications and complexities of industry initiatives which are often leading regulatory requirements.

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According to Ruixin Zhou, co-founder and CTO of Tuya Smart, the company needs a “global security ecosystem of education, standardisation, testing, and certification” to unleash the full potential of its IoT platform.

"We take security issues very seriously. With the aim to deliver increased consumer confidence in smart products, we adhere to the most stringent standards and certify our modules with TÜV SÜD,” he said. “We are very excited to expand our partnership with TÜV SÜD. This partnership will help create a robust foundation for more efficient safety certification for our customers, unleashing more potential of the Tuya platform."

The two organisations’ partnership is marked by the announcement that Tuya's Wi-Fi+Bluetooth module with model no. WBR3 has obtained TÜV SÜD's ETSI EN 303 645 evaluation and AoC.

The partnership will promote certification and marking services to Tuya's ecosystem partners, ensuring that safety mechanisms meet all relevant industry standards.

"The rapid development of the IoT industry is reshaping people's lives. As the world's leading companies in the industry, Tuya and TÜV SÜD should comply with new requirements, and demand new technologies to provide more efficient and customised devices for network devices and services to meet customer needs. Tuya Smart's global developer ecosystem can help companies produce safe smart products for end users, and promote the continued growth of the smart market. We are full of confidence in the long-term cooperation with Tuya Smart." said Ashley Chan, senior vice president, CPS, TÜV SÜD.

Tuya provides a wide variety of IoT solutions to manufacturers, brands, OEMs, and retail chains to transform products into smart devices and systems. Devices smart-enabled by Tuya are selling through over 100,000 online and offline channels worldwide. Tuya has taken a comprehensive approach to security, looking for independent security institutes to design and implement secure product solutions.

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In a joint task force, the two organisations have specified a standard use of the Open Metering System (OMS) metering language over LoRaWAN. The new specification reduces the complexity and cost of integration for utilities, which in turn increases their return on investment (ROI). A joint demo of OMS over LoRaWAN will be shown at Enlit, taking place Nov. 29 to Dec. 2, 2021, in Milan.

“Standardisation is absolutely essential to achieving massive scale for the IoT,” said Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance. “Given the large scale of their deployments, gas, water and electric utilities will achieve improved business value from implementing standards-backed technologies like LoRaWAN and OMS due to the interoperability and ease of deployment provided. LoRaWAN is already proven for networking smart utility applications, from metering, to leak detection, automated shut-off, and more. Using LoRaWAN with OMS is a game-changer for the European utility market that makes deployments simpler and more cost-effective, while ensuring the interoperability of legacy meters, to maximize ROI.”

The OMS specification is an open, multi-vendor, interoperable communication standard for electricity, gas, thermal energy, and water meters, as well as submetering. OMS is based on the EN 13757-x standard,  and it has been included into the EU mandate M/441 for the standardization of smart metering systems, and is compatible with the widely-used KNX standard (ISO / IEC 14543-3 = EN 50090).

Because of its special focus on low energy consumption, OMS-specifications are extremely fit for battery powered devices, like smart gas, water and thermal energy-meters as well as sensors. In addition, it is very well usable for powered systems and electricity metering.

“Utilities have long relied on the Open Metering System Specification to integrate all media––gas, heat and water, including submetering––into one system,” said Andreas Bolder, speaker of the board of OMS-Group. “Combining the benefits of the OMS language with those of LoRaWAN networking offers further standardisation of smart metering applications, increasing utilities’ readiness for IoT.”

The new joint LoRa Alliance and OMS specification enables a standard M-Bus transport over LoRaWAN, and a joint proof of concept (PoC) has validated the interoperability on all levels, from data platform down to different OMS end devices connected via the same or different LoRaWAN networks.

At Enlit, a joint demo of the OMS over LoRaWAN PoC will be featured in the LoRa Alliance and OMS-Group’s respective stands. The specification and PoC were developed jointly by members of both organizations. The specification and PoC were developed jointly by members of both organisations, and includes representation from Birdz, Diehl Metering, Elvaco, Kamstrup, Mainlink, Minol-ZENNER-Group, and Semtech.

Birdz, the IoT subsidiary of Veolia Environment Group, has been a sponsor and primary contributor to the liaison’s effort. Its CEO Xavier Mathieu stated, "This liaison and the OMS over LoRaWAN technical solution are a major achievement to bring highly efficient, standard and interoperable smart metering solutions to utilities and municipalities."

Using OMS over LoRaWAN for standard OMS applications allows utility companies that already use OMS to benefit from LoRaWAN’s advantages, including low power consumption, long range and deep indoor penetration–ideal for meters that are often underground, or in concrete or other hard-to-reach areas–and firmware updates over the air (FUOTA). The new specification also ensures interoperability with legacy OMS-based systems, frees utilities from the costly burden of deploying and maintaining radio network infrastructure by using existing LoRaWAN third-party networks. Together, this extends the systems’ useful life to achieve significant cost savings.

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Called FIDO Device Onboard (FDO) for IoT,  the new specification was collaboratively developed to solve the issue of IoT security in onboarding – just as the alliance has done with its FIDO authentication standards to help address the global data breach problem.

The FDO specification has reached Proposed Standard status and is open and free to implement. Initially, the specification is targeted at industrial and commercial applications.

“The FDO standard builds on our ongoing efforts to help close the security gaps that currently exist on the web, by expanding this work into IoT applications,” said Andrew Shikiar, executive director and CMO of the FIDO Alliance.

He pointed out that companies see the huge potential of the IoT and the enormous benefits it can bring to manufacturing, retail, healthcare, transportation, logistics and more.

“The paradigm needs to shift immediately so we can move IoT technologies ahead with safer, stronger and more secure means of authentication for these important uses in industrial and commercial environments,” Shikiar said.

Formed in 2012, the FDO Alliance addresses the lack of interoperability among strong authentication technologies, and remedy the problems users face with creating and remembering multiple usernames and passwords.

The FIDO Alliance has been introducing standards for simpler, stronger authentication that define an open, scalable, interoperable set of mechanisms that reduce reliance on passwords. FIDO Authentication is stronger, private, and easier to use when authenticating to online services.

To date, the alliance is composed of over has 250  of the world’s  most influential and innovative companies and government agencies,  working on cybersecurity to eliminate data breaches and  to secure online experiences.

Security a major barrier to IoT adoption

IDC expects the IoT market to maintain a double-digit annual growth rate and surpass the US$1 trillion mark in 2022.

Despite this projected growth, a recent survey has found a majority of businesses have serious concerns about breaches to their infrastructures. Of the 170 IoT leaders polled, the survey found that 85% say security concerns remain a major barrier to IoT adoption. Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents stated that end-to-end IoT security is their top short-term priority, surpassing edge compute (55%), artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (50%) and 5G deployments (28%).

The new FDO standard is an automated onboarding protocol for IoT devices, leveraging asymmetric public key cryptography to provide the industrial IoT industry with a fast and secure way to onboard any device to any device management system.

“This is a major milestone that aims to solve one of today’s critical challenges with deploying IoT systems. The new FDO standard will help reduce cost, save time and improve security, all helping the IoT industry to expand rapidly,” said Christine Boles, vice president, Internet of Things Group and General Manager, Industrial Solutions Division at Intel. “Implementation of the FDO standard will enable businesses to truly take advantage of the full IoT opportunity by replacing the current manual onboarding process with an automated, highly secure industry solution.”

The business benefits from the FDO standard include:

• Simplicity – Businesses no longer have to pay more for the lengthy and highly technical installation process than they do for the devices themselves. The highly automated FDO process can be carried out by people of any level of experience quickly and efficiently.
• Flexibility – Businesses can decide which cloud platforms they want to onboard devices to at the point of installation (as opposed to manufacture). A single device SKU can be onboarded to any platform, thereby greatly simplifying the device supply chain.
• Security – FDO leverages an “untrusted installer” approach, which means the installer no longer needs – nor do they have access to – any sensitive infrastructure/access control information to add a device to a network.

Open-arm welcome

IoT industry stakeholders expressed optimism over the new FDO standard, which is expected to enable device makers to deploy, onboard and manage secure IoT devices faster at a lower cost.

“As the IoT rapidly expands, the security of devices cannot be optional, and a strong foundational root of trust is essential. It will help scale IoT across both industrial and consumer use cases,” said Mohamed Awad, vice president, IoT Business at Arm

Mohammad Zoualfaghari, research manager and IoT Architect at BT said: "FDO is a revolutionary standard, which can address a critical need for the IoT, Edge Compute and 5G industries and help them to scale up securely and fully automated, from the manufacturer to the consumer, from the device to edge, and from edge to the cloud."

Joe Pearson, technology strategist, IBM Cloud and Technical Steering Committee Chair, Open Horizon project, is looking forward to implementing FDO in their smart agriculture use cases and in the open retail reference architecture.

“The Open Horizon project wanted a simple solution to zero-touch provisioning that would have wide support from hardware manufacturers, maximum flexibility, and a staged approach. The FDO specification from the FIDO Alliance certainly meets those requirements,” said Pearson. “After implementing and shipping support in Open Horizon, we're pleased with the results and with the feedback we've received from those using it in the field.”

Jürgen Rebel, senior vice president and general manager Embedded Security at Infineon Technologies is pleased that the FDO protocol is built with security in mind.

“It enables FDO based systems to store the private key secrets and device credentials in a Trusted Platform Module. TPM is a widely accepted and used technology that creates trust in manufacturing and supply chain. It is a major contribution towards the acceleration of IoT device deployment,” Rebel said.

Sam George, VP of IoT, Microsoft Azure, echoed the same sentiment:  “Device onboarding through a standardised protocol like FDO simplifies device set-up by abstracting the underlying complexities of the hardware, which will accelerate the adoption of IoT in industry. We are thrilled to see the FIDO Alliance address such a critical piece of the IoT device lifecycle.”

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“The concept received strong cross-member support when first discussed and reflects the priority that corporations are putting on this issue. By launching this initiative, we want to help businesses build sustainability using IoT systems. We also want to show them how to choose sustainable technologies and prepare for the new innovation possibilities that these technologies enable,” said Dale Seed, convenor of oneM2M’s sustainability initiative from Interdigital and Convida Wireless.

According to the World Economic Forum’s “Guideline to Sustainability”, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) can add US$14 trillion of economic value to the global economy by 2030. However, while technology driven change can be a tremendous driver for value creation, some of its side effects, including wasteful usage patterns and throwaway technology, can undermine total gains. This highlights why organisations need to factor first- and second-order sustainability principles in their technology and design choices.

Since its establishment in 2012, oneM2M has been leading a multinational, open, and collaborative approach to create an extensible standard for IoT systems. From the outset, oneM2M participants recognised the importance of defining a general-purpose architecture applicable to a wide range of application domains. The intention was to avoid competing standardisation efforts, at the technical and national levels.

The organisation also encourages interoperability by helping developers to re-use existing and established technologies, some of which are specific to individual industry domains. oneM2M’s principles align with well-accepted sustainability objectives that seek to minimise duplicative efforts while prolonging the usefulness of legacy investments and fostering economies of scale.

Currently, oneM2M consists of eight of the world's preeminent standards development organisations: ARIB (Japan), ATIS (U.S.), CCSA (China), ETSI (Europe), TIA (U.S.), TSDSI (India), TTA (South Korea), and TTC (Japan), together with industry fora or consortia (GlobalPlatform) and over 200 member organisations.

But on top of its member base, participation in oneM2M’s new sustainability initiative is open to the wider technology and software services communities as most IoT systems rely on partnerships among suppliers along business and operational value chains. Since the IoT and associated technologies such as AI, cloud computing and mobile internet are enablers of digital transformation, the oneM2M initiative also aims to work across industry domains.

“Mobile networks and IoT technologies are among the topmost candidates for enabling sustainability in the way that organisations manage their environmental footprint. This new initiative offers a way to help organisations build IoT systems based on an open standards framework that is scalable and minimises waste by re-using established technologies and legacy systems”, said Enrico Scarrone, steering committee chair at oneM2M.

Building on the contributions of more than 250 members organisations, oneM2M specifications provide a framework to support end-to-end IoT systems, applications, and services. The horizontal architecture and framework for oneM2M technical specifications has been developed in an open and collaborative environment, with a clear governance framework. These factors facilitate trust in its specifications, cross-vendor interoperability tests and certification efforts.

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“5G, along with industrial IoT, provides an opportunity for telcos to create unique use cases and solutions that are industry-specific,” he said. “Establishing alliances and partnerships in the ecosystem will be important. Telcos can leverage existing relationships with enterprise and public sector clients, and develop deep understanding of sector issues and requirements to effectively develop the right solutions. Growth in enterprise business is imperative for telcos to realize their 5G vision.”

According to the latest EY report entitled “Top 10 risks in telecommunications 2020”, while different industries are at varying stages of their 5G investment journey, they all need support to realise the opportunities on offer. The risk of ineffective engagement with industry verticals and the public sector ranks seventh, and it is often due to low awareness of the benefits of 5G. Indeed, an earlier EY report stated that 80% of enterprises across verticals want 5G providers to articulate a more coherent 5G vision, underlining the need for clearer dialogue.

Wong  noted that  while 5G opens up many new opportunities for telcos, the industry needs to overcome several challenges before unleashing 5G’s full potential.

He added: “A key issue telcos in Southeast Asia face is the lack of monetisable use cases beyond enhanced mobile broadband, which limits the return on investment. Other challenges to tackle include business transformation, CAPEX and OPEX optimisation, and regulatory issues. Telcos will need to fundamentally evaluate their role in the context of the IoT value chain and ask how they can transform from ‘telecom service provider’ to ‘digital service providers’.”

Maintaining infrastructure resilience

While telcos have largely risen to the challenge of withstanding a surge in network demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, pressure to maintain infrastructure resilience and expand reach emerges as the most pressing sector challenge,” according to the latest EY report,  which combines industry insights and consumer survey data to shortlist the most urgent threats facing today’s telcos.

With initial pandemic lockdowns across the globe triggering traffic spikes of up to 70%, EY analysis across nine countries: Italy, Canada, Romania, Spain, US, UK, Thailand, Greece and India (March 2020),  telcos have successfully assumed an elevated societal role as connectivity providers.

But with 42% of UK consumers stating that telcos should focus resources on maintaining broadband quality and 32% of US consumers citing concerns about home internet reliability, speed and connection EY survey of 2,500 UK households (27 May-1 June 2020) and 3,500 US households (April 2020). since the pandemic began, telcos need to do more to sustain positive customer perception about the service they receive.

Tom Loozen, EY Global Telecommunications Leader, said: “Overall, networks have withstood a sharp increase in home working, entertainment and schooling during the pandemic and telcos have commanded favourable customer opinion as a result. However, revenues are set to decline across most product categories and telcos must not become complacent. The journey to recovery will require new thinking and competencies, shifting the customer promise from speed to reliability, so telcos can thrive in the ‘new normal.’”

Transformation agenda amid geopolitical upheaval

Meanwhile the report cited the inability to scale digitisation initiatives ranks second on the risk radar. The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating this drive, with 78% of telcos now either re-evaluating or adapting the speed of automation and digital transformation programs. Despite this reappraisal, historical barriers remain – including inadequate skills in analytics and AI.

Failure to mitigate escalating geopolitical and competitive disruption lists ninth in the ranking and is a theme that underpins all of the top 10 risks. With network equipment supply chains increasingly being disrupted by global trade forces, there are concerns that 5G rollouts could be delayed although telcos in Southeast Asia have actually begun accelerating their launch of commercial 5G services. Thailand’s telcos was the first country to offer 5G services in May 2020, followed by Singapore’s telcos in August.

Ranked fifth are risks associated with changing imperatives in privacy, security and trust. Less than half (47%) of UK consumers feel they are in control of their online data, and reports of privacy issues relating to contact tracing apps and video call platforms have heightened concerns during the pandemic. The sector typically underestimates the link between trust and revenue growth, with nearly half (46%) of telcos perceiving cybersecurity as either compliance or crisis-driven rather than as a proactive endeavour.

“Telcos’ relationships with government are deepening, with operators playing a pivotal role in pandemic response and recovery, positioning telecoms’ status as a national strategic asset more so than ever. Making the most of this more intimate relationship will require ongoing focus,” Loozen said.

Other risks listed among the top 10 include: failure to redesign workforce purpose and inclusion (third in the ranking); failure to improve capex efficiency and network returns (fourth); poor management of investor and stakeholder expectations (sixth); inability to adapt to a changing regulatory landscape (eighth); and failure to take advantage of changing market structures (tenth).

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Engineers need to deal with the complexities of electromagnetic compliance  (EMC) requirements because of the side effects of closely spaced electronic devices. They must evaluate their designs for quality and functional safety by meeting or exceeding regulations.

To accelerate EMC testing that produces accurate and repeatable results, Keysight Technologies has opened a new Regulatory Test Laboratory in Penang, Malaysia to deliver accredited EMC testing services for manufacturers of electronic devices and mission-critical industries across wireless communications, IIoT, automotive, healthcare and medical applications.

“On average, 40% of first-time compliance tests fail. The failure to pass a compliance test causes a minimum delay of three to four weeks. With our EMC Test Lab and EMC test experts, companies can jump-start their schedule by validating their EUT (equipment under test)  to standards and

regulations earlier in the design process. Our experts know why and how to make measurements.” Said Niels Faché, vice president of Service Portfolio, Global Services at Keysight. "Keysight's compliance and testing laboratories around the world and now in Asia, offer expertise and emerging technologies that can help our customers validate designs and accelerate time to production."

Ambient-free measurement environment

Located in Malaysia’s high-tech industry centre, the Regulatory Test Lab in Penang joined similar testing facilities operated by Keysight in California in the US and in Boelingen, Germany.

The new testing facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art 10-metre semi-anechoic chamber, which

provides an ambient-free measurement environment with a dual-antenna system. The fully automated door allows easy access to bring larger products and even vehicles inside the chamber.

The facility also uses CISP- compliant highspeed PXE with time-domain scan functionality and state-of-the-art software, providing fast, accurate testing. Furthermore, it generates fast and accurate automated test reports, which  is in contrast with 90% of test houses that struggle to generate good-quality test report, according to Keysight. Engineers often spend up to two months finalising the report after completing a test.

Other benefits that the Regulatory Test Laboratory deliver, include:

• Engineers and technicians who can review EMC test plans, testing and standard operating procedures, to help ensure that testing is performed correctly the first time.
• Tailored testing solutions to help customers meet deadlines with state-of-the-art software automation that enhances process efficiency, analyses results and reduces testing cycles, resulting in reduced test costs.
• Proven technologies that help ensure equipment conforms to regulations and standards with pre-compliance/compliance testing and certifications.

"We are committed to helping customers with our comprehensive solutions, even during difficult times," said Gooi Soon Chai, president of Keysight's electronic industrial solutions group "We recognise that COVID-19 is creating a variety of challenges for existing and new manufacturing customers, and believe that this facility, and the myriad of services it can provide, will support these customers through even the most demanding situations."

As a technology company, Keysight’s target market includes engineering companies, enterprises, mobile network operators, and governments. The company claimed all 25 of the top technology companies use its solutions.

In wireless, it was one of the first to market 5G solutions, demonstrate 5G data rates greater than 4 Gbps over the air, offer narrowband IoT test solutions, and enable International Mobile Telecommunications-2020 progression. For its cloud and data centre customers, Keysight has developed a comprehensive public and private cloud visibility solutions.

Keysight is a leader in the areas of automotive and IoT, with more than 88 solutions launched since 2015 including e-Call, C-V2X, RTS, cell formation, and charge and discharge. The company’s automotive R&D centres in the United States, Germany, Malaysia, Japan, and China serve customers around the globe.

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Developed in consultation with city state’s Cyber Security Agency amid the growing adoption of IoT devices, the document provides practical  tips to help companies address the cyber security aspects of IoT systems in the acquisition, development, operation and maintenance of these systems.

The guide introduces  foundational concepts and provides a set of baseline recommendations and a checklist for users and vendors.

“As companies deploy more IoT systems and devices to improve business efficiency and productivity, it also exposes them to more cyber security threats and vulnerabilities. I encourage companies and vendors to adopt the new IoT Cyber Security Guide and take cyber security into consideration early at the point of designing and developing their IoT systems to better protect their businesses from cyber security threats and the damage they bring,” said IMDA deputy chief executive Aileen Chia.

The document provides a holistic approach to identifying and mitigating the threats and vulnerabilities posed by IoT systems. It covers a wide range of practical issues faced by IoT vendors and their users such as:

• Fundamental IoT security design principles
• Security Impact categories for identification of assets of interests
• Threat categories for the enumeration of threats, from both cyber and physical perspectives
• Attack surface categories that are common to IoT devices.
• System and device life cycles with different threat considerations for each cycle
• Assessment of threats

Enterprise users welcomed the release of the new document.

“Many businesses are embracing the use of transformative technologies using IoT and while IoT promises a wealth of opportunities, it ushers in new threats and vulnerabilities. The IoT guide initiative by IMDA is a commendable effort that helps organisations navigate the design and use of IoT in a more secured way. It paves the way for organisations to provide feedback and share them with the larger IoT community on what can and should not be done,” said P Ramakrishnan, CEO of CIO Academy.

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Originally introduced in 2016 and again in 2017, the bill was re-upped last year by Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Known as the Developing and Growing the Internet of Things (DIGIT) Act, the bill seeks to facilitate the growth of IoT technologies in the US.

“With our bipartisan bill now one step closer to becoming law, we’ll be able to realise the full potential of the Internet of Things, and help the private and public sectors work together to produce well-informed policies on connected technology,” said Senator Schatz.

The bill would convene a working group of federal entities and experts from the private and academic sectors tasked with providing recommendations to Congress on how to facilitate the growth of connected IoT technologies.

The group’s recommendations would focus on how to plan for, and encourage, the development and deployment of the IoT in the U.S.

“As America moves toward an increasingly connected future, the DIGIT Act will ensure that we remain a technological leader,” said Senator Fischer. “I am grateful for the work of the bipartisan Senate IoT Working Group on this bill, which would spur innovative solutions across industries to benefit our nation’s families, communities, and businesses. I look forward to the House’s consideration of this legislation.”

Meanwhile, the DIGIT Act also directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to complete a report assessing spectrum needs required to support the Internet of Things

“As connected technology continues to evolve, it’s critical that Congress and the federal government leverage innovation developed in the private sector, and I’m glad the Senate passed the bipartisan DIGIT Act. This bill will improve coordination between the federal government and the technology industry and create opportunities for further deployment of secure IoT devices. I look forward to working with Senators Fischer, Booker, and Schatz to get this bill signed into law,” said Senator Gardner.

The DIGIT Act is supported by: The App Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, the Computing Research Association, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Intel, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the Security Industry Association, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association, and VMware.

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The deployment of these cameras is part of the company’s Project Sunflower scheme, which prevents underage access and use of e-cigarettes by minors. Under the scheme, customers undergo another layer of automated verification to ensure a match between them and the ID presented when making a purchase.

Project Sunflower is already being implemented nationwide, with RELX aiming to install the system in 100 stores within the next three months and across all RELX stores within seven months. Under an unwavering penalty system, any retailers caught selling products to minors are set to be fined RMB 200,000 for first-strike offences, with the possibility of total suspension of business in the event of future strikes.

“The flagship store demonstrates Project Sunflower’s central role in RELX’s retail division,” said Jiang Long, co-founder and head of sales. “As a visionary company, RELX is prepared to shoulder the responsibility of blazing the trail in tech-enabled social responsibility.”

Founded in January 2018, RELX is Asia's leading e-cigarette company geared towards empowering adult smokers through technology and design, ethically. RELX develops its cutting-edge e-cigarette products at its R&D centre in Shenzhen, China.

Immersive shopping experience

The newly opened flagship store occupies 140 sqm space in Shanghai’s bustling central business district. It features a brand experience area, a consumer education area, an interactive zone, and device engraving services.

“Consumers nowadays prefer immersive shopping experiences, and we want to make this flagship a place where we can not only better communicate with them about our product and values but also better understand their needs. We’re always on the lookout for ways to better serve our consumers,” said Wang Tao, head of RELX’s new retail business. “

He added that RELX will launch stores in areas of interest in various cities, such as Beijing’s 798 art hub and Shenzhen’s Haigangcheng, to provide avant-garde experiences to consumers.

RELX only ventured into the retail business in January last year and now operates over 1,400 RELX stores across 300 cities in China.

With the opening of its new flagship store in  Shanghai, the company also announced its intention to invest RMB 500 million in establishing 10,000 stores globally over the next three years.

As China’s biggest e-cigarette brand holding a market share above 60%, the company is poised to strengthen its lead by accelerating its retail business.

“RELX is investing heavily in breakthrough technologies to enhance franchisees’ profit margins and increase consumer loyalty during the course of its brick-and-mortar expansion,” Long said. “As always, our focus will remain on preventing minors from using e-cigarette products and leading the path of innovation for the entire industry by developing advanced retail technology.”

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“If we all wait for the law to catch up we’d never get anything done,” she opined.

She also suggests that “businesses can take a proactive strategy by trying to understand what regulators and the public would be concerned, where the laws might go, and where the regulator's might intervene if they think there is an issue.”

Click here to read the full article: IoT innovation outpaces regulation for now

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The first formal meeting of the combined organisation will be held in Athens, Greece, March 9-12, 2020.

“Over its two-year lifespan, TIoTA has impacted the intersection of DLT and IoT, while in its five years, the IIC has established major influence in IoT across industries,” said Csilla Zsigri, senior analyst, Blockchain & DLT, 451 Research.  “This consolidation will strengthen the ability of the IIC to provide guidance and advance best practices on the uses of distributed ledger technology across industries, and boost the commercialization of these products and services.”

The IIC delivers a trustworthy IIoT in which the world’s systems and devices are securely connected and controlled to deliver transformational outcomes, while TIoTA seeks to enable trust in the data produced by such IoT systems in a distributed ledger/blockchain agnostic fashion.

According to IIC executive director Richard Soley, the combined organisation will offer a single stop for IoT industry guidance and a larger ecosystem for end-users looking to improve their bottom line with IoT and DLT.

““Since IIC began in 2014, the use cases for distributed ledger technology have grown exponentially,” Soley said. “This merger will enable the consortium to become the centre of gravity for the future of industrial IoT systems across industry verticals.”

As an IIC liaison, TIoTA has previously partnered with IIC on some of  its Trusted IoT Global Design Challenges, Trusted IoT Reference Architecture working group, and other initiatives.

“We are looking forward to bringing these into the IIC portfolio to further develop practices around multi-stakeholder innovation strategies,” said Anoop Nannra, founder and chairman of TIoTA.  “Our membership is excited to help drive and shape the advancement of trusted systems in a broad range of IoT applications with the wider community.”

He added that TIoTA is  excited “to take this step toward integrating with IIC and continuing to accelerate our momentum together.”

TIoTA members welcomed the move to bring the two organisations together under one roof.

“TIoTA has built a community of technology leaders focused on bringing blockchain/DLT solutions to market,” said John Calian, head of Telekom Innovation Laboratories (T-Labs), an enterprise member of TIoTA. “This community is focused on leveraging the power of blockchain/DLT and the concept of decentralized trust to achieve greater security, scalability, and interoperability within existing and future IoT ecosystems. This direction will help the IIC continue its market momentum.”

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The new standards, which comes out after a 12-month consultation with drone professionals, academics, businesses and the general public, are set to have a massive impact on the future growth of the drone industry throughout the world.

““Drones are a transformative global phenomenon, offering an unprecedented economic opportunity for those businesses and countries with the foresight to embrace this technology,” said Robert Garbett, convenor of the ISO Working Group responsible for global air drone operational Standards.

Garbett is also chairman of the BSI Committee for UK Drone Standards and founder of Drone Major Group, the world’s first global drone consultancy.

“My own conversations with Government, businesses and other stakeholders have shown that the new standards will be enthusiastically welcomed and will empower organisations to discover how they can use drone technology to enhance their competitive position, adding value and creating growth and jobs,” he said.

The approval of the  ISO standards for air drones came after four years of collaboration involving ISO, BSI and other national standards bodies from all over the world, reinforced through expert input from a wide range of industry and public sector stakeholders.

It represents enormous progress in the standardisation of the global drone industry and is of particular significance in addressing the operational requirements of the more recognised and prevalent air drones, also known as UAS.

The new standards include protocols on Quality, Safety, Security and overall “etiquette” for the operation of commercial air drones, which will help shape future regulation and legislation. It is the first in a series of emerging standards for air drones, with others due to address General Specifications, Product Manufacture and Maintenance, Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) and Testing Procedures. The Product Manufacture standards for UAS, which are due to be published next year, will combine with the operational standards already published to establish a full-airworthiness suite of standards for UAS.

“The standards will deliver a new confidence among investors in the safety, security and compliance of commercial drone operations, which together with the Product Manufacture and Maintenance Standards, is expected in turn to facilitate a massive expansion in the availability and use of drone technology in the years to come,” said Garbett.

Drone industry gears up for massive growth

A number of recent reports have attempted to forecast the economic impact of air drones globally.

For instance, in its report Drones Reporting for Work, Goldman Sachs has estimated that the size of the global drone industry will reach US$100 billion by 2020. Most recently, analysts at Barclays estimate that the global commercial drone market will grow tenfold from US$4bn in 2018 to US$40bn in five years. They believe the use of drones will result in cost savings of some US$100bn.

These predictions relate solely to air drones, demonstrating that the economic benefits offered by drone technology are vast, with growth set to accelerate across surface, underwater, air & space, as well as emerging hybrid drone applications.

Already, air drones are  beginning to provide solutions to some of the most pressing economic, transport, security, environmental and productivity challenges faced by governments and industry throughout the world, reducing road traffic, easing congestion, saving lives through a reduction in accidents and reducing pollution in our cities.  As well as speeding up the delivery of large-scale infrastructure projects, drones are expected to reduce the need for some expensive new major transport infrastructure altogether.

The approval of the new standards is an important first step – a part of a wider deliverable by ISO, which is expected to trigger rapid acceleration in the use of air drones by organisations keen to reap the rewards of this transformative technology, against a background of reassurance on safety and security within a new framework of approved regulatory compliance.

Indeed, new exciting applications for air drones are being developed daily.

Revolutionary approaches are emerging for freight and passenger transportation, with drones providing a cost-effective and environmentally responsible alternative to traditional methods, relieving the burden on our already stretched urban road networks.

Further applications in the agricultural, maritime, construction and energy sectors among others, are already transforming businesses, with virtually all industries and business sectors set to benefit from the Standard-led adoption of rapidly evolving drone technology.

Eye on air safety

A key attribute of the ISO standards for air drones is their focus on air safety, which is at the forefront of public attention in connection with airports and other sensitive locations.

The new standards promotes an “etiquette” for drone use that reinforces compliance towards no-fly zones, local regulation, flight log protocols, maintenance, training and flight planning documentation.

Social responsibility is also at the heart of the standards, which strengthens the responsible use of a technology that aims to improve and not disrupt everyday life.

The effectiveness of the standards in improving air safety will be further strengthened by the continuing rapid development of geo-fencing and counter-drone technology, providing frontline protection against rogue drone operators.

Privacy and data protection

The new standards also seek to address public concerns surrounding privacy and data protection, demanding that operators must have appropriate systems to handle data alongside communications and control planning when flying.

The hardware and software of all related operating equipment must also be kept up to date. Significantly, the fail-safe of human intervention is required for all drone flights, including autonomous operations, ensuring that drone operators are held accountable.

The post ISO approved international standards for drones appeared first on FutureIoT.

The agreement was signed by David Koh, CEO of Singapore's Cyber Security Agency, and Ciaran Martin, Head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre during the Singapore International Cyber Week.

In a joint statement, both national agencies expressed their commitment to take a leading role in driving improvements in the security of smart consumer products.

“We want to ensure that internet-connected devices have security built in by design and the public and industry are protected against related security threats, such as cyberattacks, theft of personal data and risks to physical safety,” said the statement.

Both nations will adopt a multilateral approach by working with partners, both internationally and regionally, including industry and consumer groups, to promote the implementation of good practice as set out in the relevant industry global standards.

“Implementing clear good practice principles from industry across all their consumer IoT devices will result in citizens and the wider economy being made safer and more secure while using their products,” the statement said.

Both countries recommend that manufacturers of consumer IoT devices to implement industry best practices such as:

• Discontinuing the most blatant security shortcomings, such as the use of universal default passwords.
• Normalising vulnerability disclosure processes across the IoT industry, so that researchers can report security vulnerabilities and manufacturers can respond accordingly.
• Encouraging the development and deployment of software security updates so that consumers and the wider technical ecosystem are protected throughout the entire life-time of IoT products. Manufacturers should define a support period for the fixing of vulnerabilities.

“We support the development of IoT assurance schemes and other efforts designed to give consumers confidence in the security of their products. The UK and Singapore have a shared interest in enhancing our bilateral cooperation in this area, as we develop our national approaches,” the statement said.

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The phrase is even more noteworthy today in the era of big data, small data and analytics. As one finance manager participating at a CXOCIETY-hosted roundtable recently attested to "we have so much data coming in, it is hard work sifting through to glean any insight, let alone figure out what is real and what isn't."

His predicament stems from the realization that as a business they have multiple sources of data: warehousing and inventory control, finance, sales and marketing, supply chain, product development, etc. And yet each department sees the company based on the data it holds and calls it's the correct version of the truth.

So as the company moves to become more data-driven, how does one reconcile the different sources [and interpretation] of data and get to the one true version of the truth?

What Master means

Gartner defines Master Data Management (MDM) as a technology-enabled discipline in which business and IT work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of the enterprise's official shared master data assets.

Master data is the consistent and uniform set of identifiers and extended attributes that describes the core entities of the enterprise including customers, prospects, citizens, suppliers, sites, hierarchies and chart of accounts.

But the description is laced with technical jargon that businesses will instantly ignore if left untethered to a business outcome.

Pierre Bonnet, vice president of Product and Engineering at TIBCO Software believes that MDM should be a business-led programme that is essentially the clearinghouse to guarantee that the most important data is clean and of the highest quality. An essential attribute of this function is the ability to share the data across the organisation.

Clearinghouse

Bonnet likens MDM to a clearinghouse for data.

As companies deal with an increasing number of data sources and fragmented information from social media, mobile devices, and the cloud, MDM allows organisations to control and manage key master data entities scattered across different applications and databases. This improves visibility and control over the business activities and optimises various business operations such as the supply chain, inventory management, forecasting, and customer service.

"In a fast-growing business market with high expectations of deep digitalisation, a company without such a "data clearinghouse" could lose control of its data quality and data governance, leading to the delivery of poor quality business processes to its market. Such an MDM system is the spine of the deep-digitalisation process a company must follow to reinforce its market sustainability," he explained.

When consolidated and matched accurately, data can reveal opportunities, risks, and areas where the business can be improved.

Got MDM, will DX

While often not discussed, MDM may play an important role in organisations undertaking a digital transformation (DX) initiative. Why? At the core of many DX journeys is data – arguably the least understood, much abused and overhyped, and still relatively untapped for many organisations.

Can a business successfully achieve transformation without the need for a clearinghouse for data?

Bonnet cautions that there are two levels to consider when discussing digitalisation.

The first is the external-facing part of digitalisation as represented by API and websites. This part has a limited impact on the organisation's internal workings.

The second level called deep-digitalisation is where a company rethinks its internal IT systems to create a portfolio of autonomous and reusable coarse-grained components that can be exposed to the market via smarter APIs.

Bonnet explained that to make this deep-digitalisation happen at the right scale with the right quality, the governance of the data must cover all the information system layers, not only revealing certain important data in a fairly rough manner.

"To get this agility and depth of data governance, a high-end MDM system is mandatory. This system will be connected into all the information silos and layers within the silos, also with new systems. It is not a surface MDM system, but a deep MDM system with a strong data storage layer, rich governance features, and a very fast, agile process of delivery for the management of changes," he elaborated.

Secret to making it work

To achieve success at large scale, Bonnet says a company's MDM system must allow for an agile delivery process.

"It is almost impossible to be sure about the data structure, semantics, and governance process a company needs to start, and the prediction for the future is so hard to establish, even impossible," he laments.

The inability to know the future is the key reason for the agility mindset. This is a vital awareness.

"If the MDM system is not agile enough, then all the existing systems running in a company could be slowed in their ability to change. There is also a potential for poor integrating with the MDM system which will not improve the data quality, and may have the opposite effect," he continues.

He suggests that checking two points: first, the MDM system must be agile, without a rigid engineering process that could delay the delivery of the existing systems.

This is what is called a "model-driven MDM" for which the data semantics will drive a big part of the expected delivery in an automatic process.

The second point is the need for a methodology framework to set up a business glossary, model the data per domain at the semantic level, design the data policy with the workflow, and appoint the right roles for the data governance, etc.

"Today, after a couple of years of implementing such an MDM system, it is clear that the "model-driven" approach is mature when applying it to the most important data, and the methodology framework relies on rich lessons learnt and best practices ready to share," he concludes.

Focus on what is important

Bonnet warns not to get hung up on sexy terms like AI, big data, and data lakes. These are just tools. The real challenge is making sure the data is clean.

"Often, big data and data lake projects rely too much on some ‘magic' algorithms that should compute the vision for improving the future. But the business prediction will not be any good if the underlying data is wrong," he pointed out.

He suggests subjecting the data to clear governance. This is arguably where MDM shines.

"The MDM system is the masterpiece of the whole data enterprise governance solution. Once the data is aligned with the quality insurance process, then a company can start getting good results with data analytics and AI," said Bonnet.

"By closing the loop between the operating system and data analytics results, the MDM is used as the bi-directional bridge to convey good data from the operating system to data analytics and from the results of data analytics back to the operating system. The two worlds are then connected under the governance enforced by the MDM system," he concluded.

Tying it to IoT

The Forrester Wave: Master Data Management Q1 2019 report notes that MDM is moving into its third generation, with the Internet of Things (IoT), and its massive stores of data, driving to the development of systems of automation and systems of design, and with it the introduction of new MDM usage scenarios to support co-design and the exchange of information on customers, products, and assets within ecosystems.

Industries like consumer products goods and retail will likely find MDM the centrepiece of flexibility. Forrester says “MDM within ecosystems, connecting to product information management (PIM) systems, is becoming a key success factor for such strategic MDM implementations.”

Minimising risks

Deploying technology is often a complicated solution to a complex problem, with risks escalating as you add more departments into the mix. Data, which cuts across everyone within the company, is no exemption.

Bonnet is not perturbed. He noted that solutions, as TIBCO EBX, can be used to quickly comply with evolving data quality, management, and governance requirements, while automating current manual business processes around the management of master data.

TIBCO EBX comes with out-of-the-box functionalities specifically designed for multi-party, multi-tier collaboration in the creation, management, and synchronisation of master data. Implementation is quicker as well, which allows businesses to quickly achieve business value and return on investment. Solutions also need to be scalable to meet future needs.

First published on FutureCIO

The post MDM can tame and monetize IoT data explosion appeared first on FutureIoT.

This is bad because it has “profound ramifications for the governance of emerging technologies.”

He reckons is fuels debate over technological governance because “it forces governments to rethink their approach to the regulation of many sectors and technologies.”

Academics like Yale University bioethicist Wendell Wallach, author of A Dangerous Master: How to Keep Technology from Slipping Beyond Our Control, worry that the “pace of change has been kicked into overdrive, making it more difficult than ever for traditional legal schemes and regulatory mechanisms to stay relevant.”

In Asia, Anne Petterd (photo right), principal at Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow, is less concerned about this pacing problem. She says this lag has not stopped businesses from operating, going ahead with innovation.

“If we all wait for the law to catch up we’d never get anything done,” she opined.

She also suggests that “businesses can take a proactive strategy by trying to understand what regulators and the public would be concerned, where the laws might go, and where the regulator's might intervene if they think there is an issue.”

In this exclusive with FutureIoT, she points to the direction of data, as created by the Internet of Things devices and sensors – how these are created, used, and the oversight that needs to happen to protect consumer data.

The law review article entitled, “Soft Law for Hard Problems: The Governance of Emerging Technologies in an Uncertain Future,” authors Jennifer Skees, Ryan Hagemann, and Thierer discuss how “soft law” mechanisms—multi-stakeholder processes, industry best practices and standards, workshops, agency guidance, and more—can help fill the governance gap as the pacing problem accelerates.

“Many agencies are already tapping soft law tools to help guide the development of new technologies such as driverless cars, drones, the Internet of Things, mobile medical applications, artificial intelligence, and others. In fact, we argue that soft law has already become the dominant form of technological governance for emerging tech in the US,” according to the paper.

The OECD paper, Regulatory Reform and Innovation, cautions that the regulatory process must take into account the effects of regulation on innovation as well as the implications of technical change for the rationale and design of regulation. The regulation/innovation interface is mutual and dynamic; an understanding of this interface is crucial to regulatory reform efforts.

The paper is not totally discarding the importance of regulatory oversight, suggesting instead, that careful consideration be placed on benefits be weighed in the debate.

Discarding the over-imaginative suggestions of The Terminator movie franchise, the PwC blog post, 2030 series: What if innovation rules the world?, opined that “automation and ‘thinking machines’ are replacing human tasks, changing the skills that organisations are looking for in their people.

It draws the reader to imagine a Red World future where innovation rules and few rules exist to impede innovation’s progress. With speed and agility as essential drivers, it postulates the rise of specialism with employers “built from individual blocks of skills, experience and networks.”

In this future, organisations will use technology, the supply chain and intellectual property, rather than human effort and physical assets, to generate value.

Welcome to the Rise of the Machines! Is Elon Musk right to be concerned about artificial intelligence?

We’ll cover that in another story. Stay tuned.

For now, Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow’s Petterd, it is important for businesses to put themselves in the shoes of regulators and consumers, to communicate how data is being used. This will help them in the future as regulations are formed.

The post IoT innovation outpaces regulation for now appeared first on FutureIoT.

The bi-partisan legislation, authored by Democrat Congresswoman of Washington Suzan DelBene and Republican Congressman John Katko of New York, directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to determine how much spectrum is necessary to meet the demands of the anticipated growth of IoT devices.

Spectrum planning is needed

“Spectrum is a finite resource, and if the available spectrum cannot accommodate the devices in the same vicinity, the signals will interfere with each other and cause them to fail,” DelBene said in a statement.

In 2014, the FCC’s own Technical Advisory Council (TAC) advised the FCC to implement a plan that would ensure adequate spectrum is available and monitor the growth of IoT devices.

FCC officials stated that when it comes to tracking spectrum demand that it “does not focus on specific devices,” rather the FCC will issue new spectrum when it is needed. Without adequate data, IoT devices risk not having access to spectrum.

“I believe it is time for the FCC to include Congress in the spectrum planning conversation,” DelBene said. “The United States can’t afford to wait around while other countries are implementing IoT readiness plans. The time for action is now,” said Congresswoman DelBene.”

The former Microsoft executive and the co-chair of the Internet of Things Caucus underlined the need to be prepared of the coming IoT explosion in the US. In 2015, a family of four had an average of 10 IoT devices connected to the internet. By 2022, however, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that that average will increase to 50 devices per family.

IoT spending on the rise

Indeed, according to analyst firm IDC, worldwide spending on IoT) is expected to reach US$745 billion in 2019, an increase of 15.4% over the US$646 billion spent in 2018. The IT analyst firm further predicted that worldwide IoT spending will maintain a double-digit annual growth rate throughout the 2017-2022 forecast and will surpass the US$1 trillion mark in 2022.

Meanwhile, other countries with similar IoT growth to the US, are already implementing proactive spectrum plans that focus on how to manage increased IoT usage.

South Korea plans to double its available spectrum by 2026, to support future innovations such as smart homes, smart factories, smart cities, and unmanned vehicles. France and the Netherlands are requiring there be enough spectrum available for the anticipated increase in smart city IoT device applications that operate solely on unlicensed spectrum.

The post New US law to prepare spectrum for massive IoT growth appeared first on FutureIoT.

According to the latest IDC Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide, Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) is projected to be the global leader IoT spending in 2019, accounting for approximately 36.9% of worldwide spending.

The reason for Asia-Pacific to be leading the IoT charge lies in the unique combination of government advocacy, manufacturing roots and research and development (R&D) know-how. Asia-Pacific is also ahead when it comes to Smart City rollout, with a staggering US$63.4 billion earmarked for investment in Smart City technology in the region. As the backbone of smart cities, IoT is a key focus area for development in the region.

As the region turns its focus to IoT, many of its markets have already begun heavy R&D investment to support its rollout. Various governments in the region such as Hong Kong and Australia are earmarking substantial amounts to build out accelerators and innovation hubs.

Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific’s longstanding roots as a manufacturing hotbed have caused the region to witness the rollout of IoT firsthand in its production lines and factories, showcasing efficiencies and vertical integrations.

Moving to the edge for IoT for success

As the IoT market matures and companies seek to derive value from it, new considerations and best-practices are emerging. IoT relies on a highly distributed network capturing data, and this data must be analysed in real-time before it rapidly loses value. This leaves enterprises facing the tough problem: How can they process data while its intrinsic value remains high?

In order to do this, analysis needs to happen at the ingestion point, on the network edge. With physics and latency considerations and given the complex processing and quick responses required by IoT, analysis is best done in close proximity to devices.

By building out an IoT environment with edge architecture, enterprises can factor in filtering, processing and analytics closer to both the input devices and end-users. Not only will this help with faster analysis and better predictive models, but it also enables the optimisation of network costs and can streamline application performance.

The limitations of early generation IoT were clear – the use of a device gateway to offer limited control and communication between sensors and IoT networks, and the consequent latency and bandwidth restrictions resulted in a response time far longer than the five milliseconds required to be considered “real-time”. Instead, edge processing will allow enterprises to fill these gaps, filtering data to reduce the quantity to transfer while gaining greater control of devices and services.

The edge is already delivering IoT success

Enterprises in the region have already begun reaping the benefits of the edge. Asia-Pacific-based ride hailing service, PickMe is working with data management services provider, Iguazio, for efficient and intelligent data management, in order for them to develop and act upon insights to streamline efficiency and grow revenue.

With the freedom to work with multiple service providers, on-premises, in the cloud or as a hybrid architecture out at the edge, anywhere in the world, PickMe is now able to build a powerful matching engine that combines application, passenger and driver data at the edge to support with real-time rate adjustments.

In the manufacturing sector, the external edge processes external input such as from the government, the weather and holiday dates can help to optimise pricing and inventory decisions once combined with value chain data. This combined data analysis allows products to get to market faster, especially when short turnaround time is necessary, such as during seasonal peaks.

Meanwhile, internal analytics from industrial IoT sensors that distributed across manufacturing components will enable predictive maintenance, conferring the ability to address issues before they can affect the manufacturing process and end-user experience.

As a result, manufacturers can optimise their architecture across multiple edges and focus distribution to support both internal analyses for improvements and external analysis for their end-users and customers.

Ultimately, successful IoT initiatives will be dependent on interconnection, with digital infrastructures that can physically link dispersed sensors, devices and machines that make up public systems, services and experiences, essential for the real-time exchange of information.

In the future, full IoT deployments can require interactions between multiple parties across a single or even multiple ecosystems. Making these complex IoT ecosystems work together intelligently requires a foundation of direct and secure interconnection that can deliver the performance, scalability and security required to build a smarter world.

The post Why Asia-Pacific leads the IoT charge to the edge appeared first on FutureIoT.

Granted, in areas like IT (internet technology) and OT (operational technology), where standard groups have long operated, standards are well developed and adopted, but at the same time, the standards and frameworks for machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and IoT are still being worked on.

Ongoing challenges

Huei Sin Ee, Vice President And General Manager of General Electronics Measurement Solutions at Keysight Technologies noted that one of the biggest challenges of developing IIoT standards is ensuring the interoperability of different IoT devices across a diverse set of applications and different kinds of communication networks.

She added that another for implementation is integrating legacy devices and applications with new devices and technologies since older systems weren’t originally designed to communicate with other applications or systems.

Despite these challenges, many industrial customers are still keen to implement the IIoT since the potential benefits of this technology—such as automation and actionable business intelligence for the factory floor—is evident.

Standard bodies like Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), Object Management Group (OMG), and OneM2M are working together to set the standards and frameworks for machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and IoT.

There have even been discussions about making the IoT standard an open standard, to expand the innovation, leverage from existing skillsets and integrate with new technology on the manufacturing floor.

“Whether or not that happens in the future, the real challenge for modern manufacturers will remain on how to connect existing systems to the IoT while also preparing for future expansions,” Ee commented.

Impact of 5G on IoT

These days there’s a great deal of hype around 5G. While it certainly can’t be everything to everyone, there are a few distinct capabilities it offers, not the least of which is massive IoT for billions of devices and ultra-low latency and increased reliability for mission-critical IoT applications.

“These capabilities make it ideal for everything from industrial automation and smart grids to Healthcare IoT. But the impact of 5G on IoT goes beyond just connecting devices to the IoT. Thanks to 5G’s high density, low cost and long-range, it will also expand the scope of IoT devices, improve their ability to operate efficiently, and accelerate their adoption,” added Keysight’s Ee.

Additionally, 5G represents a fundamental shift in communication network architectures. And as such, it will expand the already pivotal role of cellular connectivity in the deployment of IoT applications.

According to Ee: “There are various ways in which a 5G mobile network can support the deployment of advanced IoT applications. With a high network speed of about 10-20 Gbps, for example, 5G enables fast transmission of massive amounts of data between connected IoT devices and allows for new capabilities and features that make use of that data."

Business applications of Industrial IoT in Asia-Pacific

While many around the world are still assessing how best to implement the IIoT in the most effective, reliable and secure manner possible, several countries in Asia-Pacific are leading the way, having already developed and built out their IIoT capability.

She cited the example of China with the rapid development of its manufacturing sector. “With so much competition, some players have pursued the IIoT as a means to gain much-needed efficiency and a leg up on competitors. The increasing sophistication of China’s manufacturing sector has led to the need for more technologically astute logistics providers and will eventually lead to the rise in its e-commerce industry. Several key players have already implemented a fully automated warehouse that ensures products are shipped from warehouse to recipient with a high level of efficiency,” said Keysight’s Ee.

Singapore is another country in Asia-Pacific that is embracing digital and IIoT technologies as a means of improving the lives of its citizens. Named the “Smart City of 2018” at last year’s Smart City Expo World Congress, Singapore is widely recognized for its projects in urban innovation and transformation industry. The government has played a vital role in developing solutions, from dynamic public bus routing algorithms to predictive analytics for water pipe leaks.

The IoT and IIoT promise incredible improvements in everything from enterprise productivity to increased wellbeing of populations in smart cities. Yet, despite its potential, the adoption rate is still slow for many countries in Asia-Pacific and around the world.

Ee concluded that while plenty of organizations acknowledge and appreciate the potential benefits of the IIoT, many are still in the midst of assessing how best to implement it in the most effective and secure manner.

“Others are waiting for full 5G deployment and standards to ensure they can leverage the IIoT to its fullest potential and with the least amount of risk.”

The post The long road to unified IoT standards appeared first on FutureIoT.

The Trusted Data Sharing Framework includes existing PDPC guides on personal data anonymization and sharing as well as new materials on data valuation for data sharing and sample legal templates to enable contractual data sharing.

“When using the framework, organizations will also be guided through the regulatory considerations, and the contractual, technical and operational safeguards needed in a data sharing arrangement,” IMDA explained.

With the framework, IMDA expects consumers to be more ready to share their data and consequently benefit from more personalized goods and services.

However, while organizations have started to recognize the value of data, IMDA said there are many challenges businesses encounter when sharing data.

These include lack of guidance, methodologies and systemic approaches for data sharing; establishing trust with partners; and ensuring compliance with regulations such as the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).

When using the framework, organizations will also be guided through the regulatory considerations, and the contractual, technical and operational safeguards needed in a data sharing arrangement, according to IMDA.

“If this results in increasing trust in the private sector and its ability to collect data responsibly, it benefits all of us because we will be able to accelerate our development towards the kind of trusted AI data solutions that we all want,” said Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information Janil Puthucheary at Innovfest Unbound annual technology conference on June 28.

Last May, Singapore’s data protection authorities have also signed an agreement with Hong Kong to strengthen cooperation in personal data protection in the two jurisdictions.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the Hong Kong SAR’s Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) and Singapore’s PDPC 1 will engage in the cross-sharing of experiences, exchange of best practices, joint research projects and information exchange involving potential or ongoing data breach investigations.

The post Singapore introduces trusted data sharing framework appeared first on FutureIoT.

Taiwan, China and New Zealand won big, with our, three and three awards won, respectively. Other winning countries include Australia, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore.

This year’s regional winners will be pitted against the other regional winners in IDC’s smart city competitions around the world for the opportunity to be named the global IDC smart city champion for one of 12 categories.

Now on its fifth year, the awards recognize private and public organizations that excelled across 12 Smart City functional eService categories in the Smart City Development Index framework. 

The research firm has projected that smart city spending globally is expected to reach US$189.5 billion by 2023, “with the upwards spending growth in transportation, public safety, utilities, and education-related projects reflected strongly in almost half of the entries received in these categories.”

"We've seen a surge in cutting-edge Future City projects being deployed across first-tier cities in developed economies. This signals a strong turnaround and commitment by advanced Asia Pacific governments to create the best 'live, learn, work and play' digital ecosystems," commented Gerald Wang, Associate Director, Head of IDC Government Insights and IDC Health Insights Asia Pacific.

These are the Asia-Pacific winners of the 2019 IDC Smart City Asia/Pacific Awards, and the outstanding smart city initiatives that distinguished them:

1. Buried Pipe Management System by SmartCity Division (Daegu Urban Corporation) (Korea) named Top Smart City Project for Administration.
2. Virtual Wellington by Wellington City Council (New Zealand) named Top Smart City Project for Civic Engagement.
3. Civic Participation Initiative for Taoyuan Citizen Card Application Expansion by Taoyuan City Government (Taiwan) named Top Smart City Project for Digital Equity and Accessibility.
4. Singapore Tourism Analytics Network by Singapore Tourism Board (STB) (Singapore) named Top Smart City Project for Economic Development, Tourism, Arts, Libraries, Culture, Open Spaces.
5. Will Digital Teacher by Vector Limited (New Zealand) named Top Smart City Project for Education category tied with Taipei City Government’s Cross Learning Barriers: Omni Smart Education (Taiwan).
6. Crossing Learning Barriers: Omni Smart Education by Taipei City Government (Taiwan) named Top Smart City Project for Education category tied with Vector Limited’s Will Digital Teacher (New Zealand).
7. Intelligent Disease Prediction Project by Provincial/ Municipal Healthcare Administration Departments (China) named Top Smart City Project for Public Health and Social Services.
8. Integrated Emergency Data Platform – Integrated Emergency Data Platform – An AIoT Application in All-Hazards Early Warning and Decision Supporting System by New Taipei City Government (Taiwan) named Top Smart City Project for Public Safety – Disaster Response/Emergency Management.
9. Wujiang Broadband Trunking Government Network by Suzhou Wujiang Public Security Bureau (China) named Top Smart City Project for Public Safety – Smart Policing category tied with Immigration and Checkpoint Authority of Singapore’s National Digital Identity Facial Biometric System (Singapore).
10. National Digital Identity Facial Biometric System by Immigration and Checkpoint Authority of Singapore (Singapore)named Top Smart City Project for Public Safety – Smart Policing category tied with Suzhou Wujiang Public Security Bureau’s Wujiang Broadband Trunking Government Network (China).
11. Forest City Smart B.I.A by Country Garden Pacificview (Johor, Malaysia) named Top Smart City Project for Smart Buildings.
12. Smart Water Project - Busan Eco Delta Smart City by Smart City Promotion Division, Busan City Government (Busan Metropolitan City, Korea) named Top Smart City Project for Smart Water.
13. Madden Street - NZ Smartest Street by Auckland Council/Auckland Transport (Auckland, New Zealand) named Top Smart City Project for Sustainable Infrastructure.
14. Shenzhen Appointment-based Traveling Project by Traffic Police Department of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau (China) named Top Smart City Project for Transportation – Connected & Autonomous Vehicles, Public Transit, Ride-Hailing/ Ride-Sharing category tied with City of Newcastle’s Smart Moves Newcastle - Mobility Projects (New South Wales, Australia).
15. Smart Moves Newscastle - Mobility Projects by City of Newcastle (New South Wales, Australia) named Top Smart City Project for Transportation – Connected & Autonomous Vehicles, Public Transit, Ride-Hailing/ Ride-Sharing category tied with Traffic Police Department of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau’s Shenzhen Appointment-based Travelling Project (China).
16. Transportation 2.0 - AI Driven Transportation Management by Department of IT, Taipei City Government (Taiwan) named Top Smart City Project for Transportation – Transport Infrastructure.
17. Hunter Innovation Project - Smart City Infrastructure by City of Newcastle (Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia) named Top Smart City Project for Urban Planning and Land Use.

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However, what makes a building “smart” is also what makes it vulnerable to cyberattacks. With poor security controls, compounded by the lack of global security standards, the plethora of IoT devices could be easy targets for hackers. Similarly, poorly secured wi-fi servers could be exploited.

Securing smart buildings thus takes a blended approach of risk-based planning, security architecture, technology, processes, and people skills. Such rigor, commonplace practice in IT systems, is not typical of BAS. Given the evolving threat landscape, it’s time that the strategy of protecting smart buildings keeps pace.

Protecting the Building Automation Systems

Prevention against intruder access is key to securing the smart built environment. The integrated BAS can be vulnerable to intrusions from within a corporate network. For instance, a hacker could gain access to the HVAC controls to compromise the stable environment within a laboratory thereby destroying years of research.

Ransomware attacks BAS the same way as it does other embedded controls systems. The BAS could be crippled through attacks on its operating system of the server, or by making critical files such as configuration and database files inaccessible.

It is good practice to deploy the BAS on a private network and to protect it from the Internet by a firewall. The servers should neither be used to check email, nor used to access websites that are not required for the running and management of the BAS. It’s also important to keep the systems updated with latest anti-virus software, revisions, and patches, as well as to conduct regular back-ups.

All building data needs to be encrypted at rest and in transit using industry-leading protocols. The platform itself should be protected by a regulated access control system, and data masked to restrict access to sensitive information.

Know Thy Devices

A robust endpoint security strategy in smart buildings is essential. The sheer number and variety of endpoints — mobile phones, tablets, and printers, for instance — could be targeted for unauthorized access. Email phishing and malware are usually distributed through the Internet; hence any end device that accesses the web and receives email attachments carries a degree of security risk.

Retaining control of systems and devices is equally crucial. It is important to identify and authenticate all devices and machines connected to the network. This would mitigate the risk of a hacker inserting a rogue, untrusted device into the network and taking control of any systems or machines. Strong cybersecurity solutions such as advance detection taps or strokes counts traps, recognise any forms of unknown actions, and in turn, lock down or isolate the network immediately to prevent any further damages.

Cyber-physical Security

A converged cyber-physical security application could bolster the overall security of smart buildings. This strategy relies on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address real-time threats while keeping a check on false alarms. The analytics platform connects and combines data from internal and external sources with advanced risk algorithms to provide proactive threat protection.

By decreasing alarm “noise,” the approach allows security teams to focus attention on the highest priority events. Through this process, information is put into context and ranked by risk severity — all this to provide a complete security picture, and to deploy the right security resources on the right security priorities.

The Collaborative Factor

Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility - from building occupants to facilities managers. Basic cybersecurity practice such as sound password management is essential. Additional two-factor authentication to access sensitive or confidential data (for example patient database) offers stronger protection. Regular audits on security measures helps stem complacency.

The role of a facilities manager is more than about running a building. With the BAS technology now containing more IT-based hardware and software, facilities managers should collaborate with IT experts to address any cybersecurity concerns that threaten the smart built environment and, by extension, the building occupants.

No two smart buildings are exactly alike. The right system integrator takes a holistic view of the building’s systems, then designs and installs technology to support the business objectives for the building, delivering better outcomes for the occupants. The right BAS is optimized for the building to operate more efficiently and sustainably while improving comfort and safety.

It’s hard for one organization to go it alone in today’s rapid evolution of cyber threats. Industry initiatives such as the ISASecure are setting international cybersecurity standards and certification for the global ecosystem of intelligent buildings and smart city technologies.

In summary, securing smart buildings and building systems is a shared responsibility requiring focus and commitment from multiple parties. Businesses and organizations would benefit from a streamlined, multi-pronged approach that protects data, devices and manage security incidents, as well as to continually improve risk management for better overall operational efficiency.

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Mike Fagan, a NIST computer scientist and one of the authors of the report, said the paper is mainly for organizations thinking about security on the level of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

“It’s targeted at the mode of thinking that an organization would have — more resources, more people, more ability, but also more risk of attack because of all those things. It’s bad when a single house is attacked, but if a million bank account passwords are stolen, that has a much larger impact,” Fagan wrote in a company announcement.

The 34-page report, “Considerations for Managing Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity and Privacy Risks (NISTR 8228),” is a companion document to the Cybersecurity Framework and SP 800-53 Rev. 5, two NIST resources that offer guidance for mitigating risk to information systems, according to Fagan.

“IoT is still an emerging field,” Fagan said. “Some challenges may vanish as the technology becomes more powerful. For now, our goal is awareness,” he said.

The report highlighted three factors that may affect the management of cybersecurity and privacy risks for IoT devices as compared to conventional IT devices as well as three high-level risk mitigation goals that organizations should have in mind.

“The availability, efficiency, and effectiveness of cybersecurity and privacy capabilities are often different for IoT devices than conventional IT devices. This means organizations may have to select, implement, and manage additional controls, as well as determine how to respond to risk when sufficient controls for mitigating risk are not available,” the report noted.

On mitigation goals, the report emphasized that the most important consideration for  IoT administrators is to protect the device and data and individuals’ privacy. 

“Organizations should ensure they are addressing the cybersecurity and privacy risk considerations and challenges throughout the IoT device lifecycle for the appropriate risk mitigation goals and areas,” the report noted.

While the report provides insights on the management of risks associated with IoT, NIST is a non-regulatory body and can only provide guidelines.

However, the report itself is the first in a planned series of documents NIST is developing, according to Fagan.

NIST said it plans to release a core baseline document that aims to identify fundamental cybersecurity capabilities that IoT devices can include. 

“We’d like to help all IoT users be aware of the risks to their security and privacy and help them approach those risks with open eyes,” Fagan said.

Governance, regulations, and standards pertaining to IoT are gaining ground in many parts of the world. Many alliances and industry bodies have released similar guidelines for IoT users, including the FIDO Alliance, NFC Forum, and the Wi-SUN Alliance. 

Even the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has released a reference framework for IoT. The new standard, called the ISO/IEC 30141, provides an internationally standardized IoT Reference Architecture for connected systems.

Early this year, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) has released the TS 103645, which it said is a globally applicable standard for cybersecurity in IoT. The new specification seeks to establish a security baseline for internet-connected consumer products.

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In support of this objective, FIDO said it has formed two new working groups — the Identity Verification and Binding Working Group (IDWG) and the IoT Technical Working Group (IoT TWG).

The IDWG will define criteria for remote identity verification and develop a certification program and led by co-chairs Rob Carter, Mastercard, and Parker Crockford, Onfido Ltd. Other participating organizations include Aetna, Google, Idemia, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nok Nok Labs, NTT DOCOMO, OneSpan, Phoenix Technologies Ltd., Visa Inc., Yahoo! JAPAN, Yubico and the UK Cabinet Office.

Meanwhile, the  IoT TWG team will be working to provide a comprehensive authentication framework for IoT devices and will develop use cases, target architectures and specifications covering IoT device attestation/authentication profiles, automated onboarding and binding of applications, and IoT device authentication and provisioning via smart routers and IoT hubs.

FIDO said this team is led by co-chairs Marc Canel, ARM Holdings, and Giridhar Mandyam, Qualcomm Inc. Other participating organizations include Google, Idemia, Infineon Technologies, Intel Corporation, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nok Nok Labs, OneSpan, Phoenix Technologies Ltd., Yahoo! JAPAN and Yubico.

Andrew Shikiar, executive director and chief marketing officer of the FIDO Alliance, explained that as they  look at the threat vectors in the marketplace, they noticed a gap between the high assurance currently provided by FIDO Authentication and other methods of identity verification and authentication for IoT.

“This gap can be most effectively addressed through industry collaboration and standardization rather than siloed, proprietary approaches,” he said.

Citing data from Gartner, FIDO said 20.4 billion connected things will be in use by 2020, opening up opportunities for increased efficiencies and innovation across industries. 

“Yet, lack of IoT security standards and typical processes such as shipping with default password credentials and manual onboarding leave devices, and the networks they operate on, open to large-scale attack,” it said.

Formed in July 2012 to address the lack of interoperability among authentication technologies, the FIDO Alliance counts  as members global tech leaders across enterprise, payments, telecom, government and healthcare sectors.

It has published three other specifications for authentication — FIDO Universal Second Factor (FIDO U2F), FIDO Universal Authentication Framework (FIDO UAF) and FIDO2, which includes the W3C’s Web Authentication (WebAuthn) specification and FIDO Client to Authenticator Protocol (CTAP). 

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This was the message of Nicholas W. Yang, Secretary for Innovation and Technology when he graced the opening of the Hong Kong IoT Conference held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on June 14.

The innovation chief said the HKSAR Government, business and community sectors are all playing an integral part in the ecosystem to catalyze more localized IoT applications and realize the next chapter of economic growth.

“We are also pushing ahead a number of key infrastructure projects to support such developments. These include installation of Multi-functional Smart Lampposts, provision of electronic identity or eID to all Hong Kong residents starting in 2020, promoting the use of Building Information Modelling, and the deployment of a Common Spatial Data Infrastructure (CSDI),” he said.

“Let us work together to embrace and leverage these new technologies to better serve the Hong Kong public,” he added.

Andy Bien, President of Hong Kong Internet of Things Industry Advisory Council & CIO of Airport Authority of Hong Kong, believes that the data collected from IoT devices can help companies gain insight into the productivity and performance of their systems and processes, offering opportunities for innovation and growth, or even disruptive company model.

“It is important for every company to possess the professional skills and strategy to understand and make use of those data, allowing the company to make data-driven business decisions,” he said.

The ecosystem of standards, devices and services, however, is fragmented, leading professionals to believe that it is slowing enterprise IoT deployments.

Anna Lin, Chief Executive of GS1 Hong Kong, emphasized the importance of open, global standards, saying that they are a “key enabler of IoT that connects data visibility to process automation.”

“It enables companies and organisations to trace the movement of objects, to perform data analytics and extract consumer insights, to drive more effective, timely business decisions, and to enhance customer experience,” she added.

GS1 Hong Kong, for example, has introduced a number of IoT solutions powered by EPCIS-based IoT platform ezTRACK, including REAL Visibility, Smart Traceability, Smart Kiosk, and cold Chain Sensor Network.

It has also introduced the Smart Retail Supply Chain & Big Data Analytics course for industry professionals to build their data talent and identify the real value through analytics.  

GS1 is a not-for-profit, industry-led global organization dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards to improve the efficiency of supply and demand chains. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, GS1 has over 110 national chapters in 150 countries.

In Hong Kong, its mission is to empower business to grow based on our global standards.  

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The new Tag NFC Data Exchange Format Exchange Protocol Candidate Specification (TNEP) simplifies the bidirectional exchange of data between a Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled phone and an IoT device.

When combined with a new candidate version of its popular Connection Handover Technical Specification (CH 1.5), it enables new NFC, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi negotiated handover products and solutions.

Together, the two specifications offer an ideal solution for microcontroller-based designs for IoT devices, according to NFC Forum.

“This will enable consumers and business users to quickly and easily benefit from a growing range of IoT devices using NFC’s easy one-tap paradigm,” Koichi Tagawa, chairman, NFC Forum, said in a news release.

NFC Forum explained that with TNEP, all NFC-enabled smartphones allowing their apps to read and write tags are capable of supporting TNEP using an app. These apps can establish a bidirectional NFC communication link to IoT devices without the need to implement the Logical Link Control Protocol (LLCP) for peer-to-peer communication (P2P).

“These apps are able to establish a bidirectional NFC communication link to IoT devices without the need to implement the Logical Link Control Protocol (LLCP) for peer-to-peer communication (P2P),” it added.

Bidirectional communication with IoT devices means NFC-enabled smartphones can read the actual state from the IoT device (e.g., the actual title of music played) and can change the configuration of the IoT device by write access (e.g., to adjust the volume or to switch to the next audio file).

“It can be used, for example, to configure an audio system, digital camera, lighting system, smart meter, or radiator valve. This protocol can also be used where P2P is not implemented, for example, on existing NFC readers that do not support P2P mode,” it added.

The first NFC Forum candidate specification to take advantage of this new TNEP definition is the updated version of CH 1.5.

NFC Forum said CH 1.5 can now use TNEP to allow an additionally negotiated handover for a connection between a reader/writer and NFC tag device providing users more control over how they gather and share their information between devices.

Both candidate specifications are available for industry review before they are validated and adopted, according to  NFC Forum.

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This has opened the floodgates to serious cybersecurity risks, threatening to cause billions of dollars in damage to industrial operations worldwide. ABI Research noted that despite the imminent danger, cybersecurity investment within the ICS market is severely lagging, expected to barely cross the US$2 billion mark by 2025.

“Over the past years, this shift has allowed internet-borne cyberthreats to find their way into traditionally sheltered industrial networks, wreaking havoc to severely underprepared systems. The cybersecurity threats faced in ICS are unlike any other,” warned Dimitrios Pavlakis, Industry Analyst for ABI Research. “ICS are powering the world’s leading and most critical industries.  A well-placed cyberattack can cause human casualties, billions in infrastructure damage, and even bring certain operations of a country’s critical infrastructure to a grinding halt.”

Social engineering, combined with cyberattacks like LockerGoga, WannaCry, notPetya, Triton, Sauron, CrashOverRide, DragonFly, and many of their mutations, have proved that digitized industrial systems are not only quite vulnerable but also a very attractive target for cyber-attackers.

ABI Research blames the problem on the juxtaposition of IT and OT.  IT security integration is expected to absorb almost 80% of the ICS security in 2019, which is primarily lead by successful Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) implementations. That is expected to drop below 70% by 2025 when other investment sources like OT asset management, threat intelligence, encryption, and ID management will increase considerably.

Additionally, while threat intelligence, encryption, and ID Management in ICS will start slowly, they are expected to grow almost threefold in investment within the next five years.

“Industrial cybersecurity strategies need a radical rethink and should be built from the OT ground up to address the evolving threat landscape. Customizing IT security and placing into an OT environment is not the answer but is one example of a strategy that is indicative of the inherent confusion regarding the ICS cybersecurity landscape,” said Pavlakis.

Steering away from traditional “air-gapped” models (having no external connections) and embracing the underlying premise of Industry 4.0 for ICS is not an easy task. The same security procedures, protocols, network/user/device protection, and ID management that make sense in corporate IT environments cannot be applied to industrial ones. Doing so will not only serve to exacerbate the underlying “IT versus OT” issue but also will gravely hinder security operations and integrations of security products with ICS equipment across the board.

“Increasing security infrastructure investment without hindering industrial operational objectives, managing the IT-OT convergence in a streamlined approach, developing new KPIs for cybersecurity operations, forcing the evolution of SIEMs and SOCs for ICS, and tending to the rising concerns from AI-borne cyberthreats are the essential components and should be used as the foundational building blocks in the development of any ICS cybersecurity strategy,” concluded Pavlakis.

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“Biometric technology has the potential to aid and accelerate identification when used carefully by trained humans, following proper processes and using the technology in the way it was originally intended,” said Biometrics Institute’s chief executive Isabelle Moeller.

“But it is vital that anyone using biometrics to identify individuals follows responsible and ethical guidelines to avoid people suffering from the consequences of the technology not being managed properly,” she added.

She believes that governments need to liaise effectively so that any potential suspect is interviewed discreetly and can potentially be eliminated from the inquiry immediately without undue publicity.

The Biometrics Institute is an independent international membership organization for biometric users established in 2001 to promote the responsible use of biometrics.

It has more than a thousand members from 240 membership organizations spread across 30 countries and represents a multi-stakeholder community including government agencies, biometric experts, privacy experts, suppliers, and academics.

In response to recent headlines around the misuse of facial recognition technology, the institute warned that if the technology is applied without properly addressing potential flaws, then regulators may opt to restrict usage until they – and industry – can ensure proper privacy protections.

“In the absence of international law and standards on biometrics, the Biometrics Institute has released a range of good practice guidelines to help organizations assess and implement responsible and ethical use in biometrics,” it said.

The guidelines have been compiled specifically for – and with the expertise of – the international member organization’s multi-stakeholder community, including Privacy Guidelines, Ethical Principles for Biometrics, Top Ten Vulnerability Questions and the United Nations Compendium of Recommended Practices for the Responsible Use and Sharing of Biometrics in Counter-Terrorism.

The institute has been working with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) and the Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT) since 2017 and was tasked to help compile the UN’s Compendium of Recommended Practices for the Responsible Use and Sharing of Biometrics in Counter-Terrorism, which was launched in 2018.

The compendium is a 96-page high-level overview of biometric technology and operating systems in the context of counter-terrorism.

It includes, among others, the governance and regulatory requirements for biometric technology from the perspectives on international law, human rights law, ethical reviews, data protection requirements, and the right to privacy.

It also outlines the potential vulnerabilities of biometric systems and some of the control measures that can be used to mitigate the risks as well as actions taken by authorities as a result of biometric matches.

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The new 1,500 square meter lab will provide measurement and testing services in accordance with the latest international regulations, the company said.

The new lab focuses on radio testing, radiated spurious emissions (Wireless/IoT) and radiated emissions (EMI/EMC) testing as well as providing full Wireless/IoT conformity assessment for a broad range of electrical, medical, commercial and automotive products.

"The world is going wireless and the technology is invading everything, from farms and factories to self-driving vehicles and even people's pockets. The explosion in IoT devices is also widening applications still further and boosting demand for safe, reliable and standards-compliant products – many of which will be designed and manufactured in India for local and global markets," said TUV Rheinland, Regional Executive Vice President, Andreas Hoefer.

TUV Rheinland is an independent inspection services provider with a worldwide presence of more than 20,000 people, and annual turnover is EUR 2 billion. Its experts inspect technical equipment, products, and services, oversees projects, and helps to shape processes and information security for companies.  

The laboratory set up in Bangalore is fully equipped to support testing for a wide range of products, such as smart meters, wearables, IoT-gateways, and mobile phones. It covers a variety of protocols such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee as well as 2G, 3G and 4G.  

It is capable of supporting round-the-clock testing activities under the latest international regulations. It is a Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) designated CAB (Conformity Assessment Body) in India and accredited under ISO/IEC 17025 (NABL) to perform RED directive testing.

It's also accredited to the American Association for Laboratory Accredited (A2LA) for the US & Canada (FCC & ISED).

TUV Rheinland India Managing Director Thomas Fuhrmann said the ease of scheduling lab slots, particularly during the design and development stages, will simplify the entire process and significantly reduce the challenges of accessing lucrative, but highly-regulated markets.

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At issue however is how to effectively manage and orchestrate these disparate data sets to allow for more intelligent management? This video covers strategies to creating a sustainable smart city operation using TIBCO Spotfire technology. It includes use case applications including traffic, street light management, and energy management.

In this short video, TIBCO presents its Connected Intelligence offering which is used to spot and seize opportunities to differentiate and lead.

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The Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2019, released on April 23 during GTCI’s Asia Launch event at the INSEAD Asia campus in Singapore, showed that Singapore also ranked second globally in the ranking.

Five other countries from Asia made it to the top 30 in the global ranking —  New Zealand (11th), Australia (12th), Japan (22nd), Malaysia (27th) and South Korea (30th).   

According to the GTCI, Singapore is the highest-ranked country in three of the six pillars – Enable, Attract, and Global Knowledge Skills. It is also one of the strongest performers with respect to the pillar on Vocational and Technical Skills.

However, the city-country’s lowest pillar rank in Retain (26th) signifying its relative weakness in retaining talent.  

Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director of Global Indices at INSEAD and co-editor of the report, said the GTCI 2019 highlights how entrepreneurial talent, with underlying attributes of mobility, diversity, and adaptability, is critical for today’s knowledge economy.

“It comes as no surprise that Singapore is the leader in Global Knowledge Skills, the pillar that best reflects entrepreneurial talent. Compared to its competitors in the region, Singapore’s stellar performance shines through. In fact, it is no less than 10 places ahead of the second-best competitor in the region, New Zealand,” he said.

China, which is in 45th place, is in the top quartile in the Grow pillar, according to the report, mainly as a result of having a world class formal education. But it also performed relatively well in the pillars related to enabling talent and global knowledge skills.

Felipe Monteiro, Affiliate Professor of Strategy at INSEAD and Academic Director of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), said China is likely to see stronger performance in future editions of GTCI.

“China leads the BRICS nations in the global talent race. Its rise in the global talent scene, while largely correlated with the transfer of talent from public to private sector, is also attributable to the blossoming of entrepreneurial talents and how large entities innovate and stimulate these efforts,” he said.

Meanwhile, the other Asian countries in the global top 30 have their own strengths and room for improvement.

According to the report, New Zealand has a strong ability to attract both foreign and domestic talent, but the pillar that is holding it back in the overall rank the most is Vocational and Technical Skills.

Australia, on the other hand,  is the best performing country when it comes to Formal Education, and it also performs well with respect to the Retain pillar, but it ranks comparatively lower in the pillars related to enabling talent and Vocational and Technical skills.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the area with the most scope for improvement relates to attracting talent, where improving gender equality indicators presents a particu­lar challenge.

Malaysia also has room for improvement in retaining talent and in indicators related to improving quality of life.

South Korea’s strongest asset is a good pool of Global Knowledge Skills, with solid performances in both High-Level Skills and Talent Impact. But the biggest issue facing the country is its ability to attract talent. Like Japan, it performs poorly with respect to the gender equality indicators.

Produced in partnership with The Adecco Group and Tata Communications, the GTCI is an annual benchmarking report that measures the ability of 125 countries to compete for talent.

This year’s report with the theme ‘Entrepreneurial Talent and Global Competitiveness’ attempts to identify the ways in which companies, countries, and cities can foster entrepreneurial talent.

“Asia-Pacific is embracing technology-driven shifts at pace, with much needed localization of services for the Asian consumer. In parallel to these shifts, it is critical that mindsets must also transform at an organization level for any digital transformation initiative to fully succeed,” said Vinod Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, Tata Communications.

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The Ministry, along with the General Administration of Market Supervision and the Bureau of Statistics, jointly released the new occupations list on April 1.

This is the first occupations list issued since the promulgation of the 2015 National Occupational Classification, according to the Ministry.

The Ministry explained that China’s economy has shifted in the past few years that it now requires more high-level workers for its high-tech industries. Hence, the need for new occupations such as artificial intelligence engineering technicians, Internet of Things engineering technicians, big data engineering technicians and cloud computing engineering technicians.

It likewise recognized that with industrial robots replacing simple labor on production lines and the advent of large-scale use of industrial robots, there is a need for  industrial robot system operators and system operators, as well as drone drivers.

Meanwhile, it said the widespread application of the Internet of Things (IoT) has created the demand for jobs involved in IoT installations.

Moreover, the professionalization of e-sports, operators and e-sportsmen has become a necessity, in the same way that the modernization of agriculture requiring high-tech equipment has opened the need for agricultural managers.

The 13 new occupations are as follows:

1. artificial intelligence engineering and technical personnel
2. Internet of Things engineering and technical personnel
3. big data engineering technicians
4. cloud computing engineering technicians
5. digital managers
6. building information model technicians
7. e-sports operators
8. e-sportsmen
9. drone drivers
10. agricultural managers
11. IoT installation and commissioners
12. industry robot system operator
13. industrial robot system operator 

According to the Ministry, China released the first occupations list in 1999, when the country was going through rapid development and new forms of businesses have emerged. This first list included 1,838 occupations. The new career release system has been followed since then.

Ahead of the release of the latest list, the Occupation Skill Testing Authority (OSTA), which is under the MHRSS, released on January 25, 2019 a definition of each of these 13 skills, plus two other jobs — urban rail transit line workers and urban rail transit train maintenance workers.

Citing a report from China Economic Information Service, China Daily reported in September 2018 that the IoT market in China reached more than 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion) in 2017 and is expected to maintain rapid growth in the next few years.

An earlier report published by the GSMA in June 2018, projects Greater China to dominate global industrial IoT market, with an estimated 13.8 billion IIoT connections globally by 2025. 

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The Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019, sponsored by Senator Mark R. Warner, directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop appropriate guidelines on the use and management of IoT devices in federal agencies.

The bill also calls for the crafting of security requirements for managing risks associated with connected devices, which it defines as “any gadget capable of connecting to and is in regular connection with the Internet; and has computer processing capabilities that can collect, send, or receive data.”

The concern over the security of such devices is growing. With the interplay of fifth generation cellular communication (5G) and artificial intelligence (AI), IoT is expected to experience tremendous growth this year and the next five years.

Research firm Gartner alone forecasts 14.2 billion connected things to be in use in 2019, rising to 25 billion by 2025.

While there is no law yet that governs the use and management of IoT devices today in the United States, the state of California passed the first IoT cybersecurity law in September 2018 requiring connected devices sold in the state to have built-in security features effective January 1, 2020.

The legislation stems from the growing security implications of connecting objects on a massive scale.

In its Threat Landscape Report for Q4 2018, security firm Fortinet confirms that the convergence of physical things and cybersecurity is creating an expanded attack surface.

Half of the top 12 global exploits target IoT devices and four of the top 12 were related to IP-enabled cameras, the report emphasized.

The IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2019 was first introduced in August 2017 by US Senators Warner, Cory Gardner, Ron Wyden, and Steve Daines. Back then, the proposed law already acknowledged that “while IoT devices and the data they transmit present enormous benefits to consumers, the relative insecurity of many devices presents enormous challenges.”

The legislation proposes to establish minimum security requirements for federal procurement of connected devices as developing third-party device certification standards for IoT.

In most regions of the world, the move to create new standards for IoT is gaining momentum. In November 2018, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released the ISO/IEC 30141, which provides an internationally standardized IoT Reference Architecture.

In February this year, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) also released the new specification, TS 103645, seeking to establish a security baseline for internet-connected consumer products and provide a basis for future IoT certification schemes. 

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On March 1, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the agency responsible for IT policy, strategy, and the development of the electronics industry, released a copy of the National Policy on Software Products recently approved by the Cabinet.

The policy acknowledged that the software industry in India is one of the largest organized sector employers, generating nearly 14 million direct and indirect jobs. It is also estimated that the industry can contribute up to US$350 billion or over 10 percent of India’s GDP by 2025.

“India’s IT industry is predominantly a service-led industry. There is tremendous scope for Indian software products to build upon the strength of the Indian IT industry, and the innovative and technological capabilities in the country,” the policy stated.

As such, the government sees the need for a framework where industry, academia, and government work in synergy to bring about a paradigm shift in the Information Technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (IT-ITES) industry.

“The National Policy on Software Product (NPSP) is the first significant step towards achieving this goal. The policy aims to develop India as the global software product hub, driven by innovation, improved commercialization, sustainable Intellectual property (IP), promoting technology startups and specialized skill sets, for development of the sector based on ICT,” the policy noted.

Among the goals is to nurture 10,000 technology startups in the software product industry, including around a thousand startups in Tier-II and Tier-III towns and cities to, directly and indirectly, employ 3.5 million people by 2025.

The goals is to nurture 10,000 technology startups in the software product industry to, directly and indirectly, employ 3.5 million people by 2025.

The plan calls for leveraging new and emerging technologies like AI, blockchain and IoT “to the maximum advantage across sectors of the economy,” which requires higher levels of innovation.

“The value addition that will so occur will boost the growth rate of each of the sectors by the realization of the immense potential therein, that is largely yet to be exploited to the fullest,” the policy stated.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the apex body for the US$154-billion IT-BPM industry in India, welcomed the move, saying that it is a positive step towards empowering India to become a global software products hub.

“The policy recommendations are aligned to NASSCOM’s suggestions on sectorial software product development clusters, talent accelerator programs, and the initiative to the nurturing of software products startups under TIDE 2.0 and NGIS,” NASSCOM said in a statement.

“Today, there is increased convergence of hardware and software, which is creating a new segment in product innovation, and we hope that the government will take cognizance of this trend and will align its initiatives,” it added.

NASSCOM also said it hopes that the policy will drive the creation of at least 30 product-driven companies from India by 2025.

A study on the IoT landscape published by Deloitte and NASSCOM in May 2017 showed that India is a rapidly growing hub for IoT solutions. The current size of the IoT market locally is around US$1.3 billion, but by 2020, this is expected to balloon to US$ 9billion, with 1.9 billion installed units.

The current size of the IoT market in India is around US$1.3 billion, but by 2020, this is expected to balloon to US$ 9billion, with 1.9 billion installed units.

The study likewise noted that there are about 120 IoT organizations across the country, comprising 60 to 65 percent of startups. Since 2014, these startups have received approximately US$60 million in funding from investors.

"The Indian IoT ecosystem is rapidly expanding, owing to the demand for both industrial and consumer IoT applications," the study noted.

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Upon successful test completion, approved products are permitted to display the Wi-SUN Certified FAN logo, which indicates to users that these products are compliant with open standards, interoperable, secure and scalable and can be deployed with confidence.

"Standards and interoperability are key to continued growth for the IoT industry," said Phil Beecher, President and CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance, in a media release.

He said the availability of certified Wi-SUN FAN solutions delivers the alliance’s mission to offer utilities, cities and service providers adaptable multi-service networks.

The solutions from Cisco, Itron, Nissin Systems, Kyoto University, Landis+Gyr, Renesas and ROHM address the needs of utilities, city developers and other service providers to simplify and support large-scale, outdoor networks for smart cities, smart utilities and other IoT rollouts.

Wi-SUN FAN is a communications infrastructure for very large-scale networks, enabling many devices to interconnect on one common network.

All Wi-SUN certified products were rigorously tested by Allion Test Labs in Taiwan, the first test lab to achieve Wi-SUN FAN 1.0 validation, to ensure the devices worked together effortlessly and securely to ensure rapid time to market.

The Wi-SUN Alliance is a global non-profit member-based association whose mission is to drive the global proliferation of interoperable wireless solutions for use in smart cities, smart grids and other IoT applications using open global standards from organizations such as IEEE802, IETF, TIA, TTC and ETSI.  

To date,  Wi-SUN FAN certified products include the following:

Cisco: IR509 WPAN Industrial Router, which will be deployed into a diverse set of IoT applications including smart metering, smart grids, distribution automation, supervisory control, and data acquisition, and street lighting.  

Itron:  Itron Bridge5-WS is a key component of the Itron Network platform that enables cities and utilities to cost-effectively integrate industrial IoT and utility control and monitoring devices onto a secure, reliable and open standards-based Wi-SUN FAN.  

Nissin Systems, Kyoto University, and ROHM: Collaborated on the development of the EW-WSN BP35C4, a multi-purpose module compliant with Wi-SUN FAN 1.0 router with a UART interface.

Landis+Gyr: The N550 Network Node is an integral part of Gridstream® Connect, the industry-leading utility IoT solution that delivers flexibility for applications such as AMI, distribution automation, consumer engagement, smart cities, DER integration and more.  

ProCubed: Provided test tools for the certification testing environment including the ProShark Plus (Wi-SUN FAN 1.0 Protocol Analyzer), 2) Test Bed Controller (Pro-Si-SUN FAN1.0-915-TBC

Renesas:  achieved Wi-SUN FAN 1.0 certification with its RF (RAA604S00)+ MCU (RX651) wireless solution.

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IIC said that as organizations connect their systems to the internet, they become vulnerable to new threats, and they are rightly concerned with security.

Building on concepts identified in the IIC Industrial Internet Security Framework published in 2016, the SMM Practitoner’s Guide defines levels of security maturity for a company to achieve based on its security goals and objectives as well as its appetite for risk.

“This is the first model of its kind to assess the maturity of organizations’ IoT systems in a way that includes governance, technology and system management,” said Stephen Mellor, CTO of IIC.

The guide includes descriptions of scenarios and what must be done to reach a given security comprehensiveness for each security domain, subdomain and practice.

An example given is an automotive manufacturer considering the possible threats interfering with the operations of a vehicle key fob.

The manufacturer sets its target maturity comprehensiveness level to “1” as it considers some IT threats, such as a Denial of Service attack that may prevent a driver from opening the car door using the key fob.

Over time, as new threats emerge, the manufacturer realizes it needs additional threat modeling and enhanced practices so raises its target maturity comprehensiveness level to a higher level “2.”

Along with the publication of the SMM Practitioner’s Guide is an update to the IoT SMM: Description and Intended Use White Paper, which provides an introduction to the concepts and approach of the SMM.

The white paper has been updated for consistency with the SMM Practitioner’s Guide, including revised diagrams and updated terminology, according to the IIC.

The IIC said it is collaborating with various industry groups to develop industry profiles that extend the model. 

In a news release, Moscow-based cybersecurity and anti-virus provider Kaspersky Lab said it had joined forces with industry leaders in developing the SMM Practitioner’s Guide.

“The prioritization of security measures, goal setting, and the development of a strategy for making a system “secure enough” is an objective that affects organizations’ long-term economic planning, along with investment, the choice of insurance program, or any other task with conflicting stimuli,” said Ekaterina Rudina, senior system analyst at Kaspersky Lab ICS CERT.

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The new specification, TS 103645, seeks to establish a security baseline for internet-connected consumer products and provide a basis for future IoT certification schemes.

ETSI said its scope covers consumer IoT products such as connected children’s toys and baby monitors, smoke detectors and door locks, smart cameras, TVs and speakers, wearable health trackers, connected home automation and alarm systems, connected appliances (e.g. washing machines, fridges) or smart home assistants.

“As more devices in the home connect to the internet, the cybersecurity of the Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a growing concern. People entrust their personal data to an increasing number of online devices and services,” ETSI explained.

“In addition, products and appliances that have traditionally been offline are now becoming connected and need to be designed to withstand cyber threats. Poorly secured products threaten consumer’s privacy and some devices are exploited to launch large-scale DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) cyber attacks,” it added.

ETSI said TS 103 645 requires implementers to forgo the use of universal default passwords, which have been the source of many security issues, and provide a means to manage reports of vulnerabilities.

It also requires manufacturers to keep software updated, minimize expose attic surfaces, ensure software integrity, ensure that personal data is protected, and make systems resilient to outages.

Other requirements include provisions for securely storing credentials and security-sensitive data, examining system telemetry data collected from IoT devices and services, and making it easy for consumers to delete personal data and to install  and maintain devices.

The specification is expected to help ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to the standards body.

“Stakeholders at all levels have worked together to make sure the specification was outcome-focused, rather than prescriptive, giving organizations the flexibility to innovate and implement security solutions appropriate for their products,” said Luis Jorge Romero, ETSI’s Director General, in a media statement.

One of only three bodies officially recognized by the European Union (EU) as a European Standards Organization (ESO), ETSI develops globally applicable standards for ICT-enabled systems, applications, and services.

It has over 800 member organizations worldwide, including leading manufacturing companies, regulatory authorities, government ministries as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, universities, R&D organizations, and interest groups.

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"The smart cities market is extremely dynamic, and while only a small number of cities have the budget for large scale integrated projects, our database of 100 cities, which includes most of the largest capitals and innovative cities around the world, only represents around one quarter of global smart city spending," said Serena Da Rold, program manager in IDC's Customer Insights & Analysis group.

RELATED: 70 smart city initiatives at full speed in Hong Kong this year

"There is a long tail of cities focusing on specific issues or looking for cross-departmental transformation on a smaller scale. These cities represent a big opportunity for providers of smart city solutions that can be replicated and adapted to address specific use cases in different cities, leveraging the experience gained in a similar context," she commented.

Initiatives related to data-driven public safety, intelligent transportation, and resilient energy and infrastructure will attract the largest share of funding in 2019, but key use cases in the areas of economic development and civic engagement, and sustainable planning and administration will also see considerable investments.

The smart cities use cases that will receive the most funding in 2019 include fixed visual surveillance, advanced public transit, smart outdoor lighting, intelligent traffic management, and connected back office.

ANALYST: Ovum: Transforming the smart city with IoT

Together, these five use cases will represent 34% of worldwide spending this year. Strong investment growth in intelligent traffic management solutions will make it the third largest use case in 2020, overtaking smart outdoor lighting.

The use case that will see the fastest spending growth over the 2017-2022 forecast period is officer wearables, which includes smart apparel, smart headsets and glasses, and smart holsters. Other use cases that will experience significant spending growth include digital twin and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) connectivity.

IDC says Asia/Pacific represents over 40% of total spending on smart cities initiatives, while the Americas represent around one third, and Europe, Middle East and Africa around one quarter of the global opportunity.

At the city level, 11 cities in China will exceed the $300 million forecast spending in 2019 compared to four in the US.

"In the Asia/Pacific region, the exponential growth and diversity of smart city initiatives in second- and third-tier cities are continually challenging many first-tier cities to transform. With competition for talent and foreign direct investment being even more intense today, these socioeconomic hubs provide huge openings for solution providers to aid in seamless connectivity and collaborations, enhanced productivity and automation, as well as address security and privacy concerns," said Gerald Wang, head of IDC Asia Pacific Public Sector research.

"By identifying and forecasting the key projects and initiatives being funded worldwide by Smart Cities and Communities, IDC has a depth and breadth of data that allows us to offer unique intelligence to suppliers and buyers of technologies in this high-growth market," added Ruthbea Yesner, vice president of IDC Government Insights and Smart Cities programs. "As the market keeps evolving via new offerings, new entrants, and new partnerships, this information will become increasingly valuable."

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Dr. Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information, made the announcement at the inaugural Infocomm Media Cybersecurity Conference on January 25, 2019.

Puthucheary said the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will develop the roadmap to build the cybersecurity capabilities of Singapore’s telecommunication operators through the formation of the Telecom Cybersecurity Strategic Committee (TCSC).

“The TCSC is tasked to identify challenges, as well as key telecommunication technologies and market developments that will shape the cyber threat landscape,” he said.

The Minister cited that in 2015, IMDA launched the Infocomm Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (ISG-CERT) to respond to cybersecurity threats within the telecommunication and media sectors.

In 2018, it revised the Telecommunications Cybersecurity Code of Practice (TCS-CoP) to ensure that it can apply the best practices from the industry to the telco space.

However, the changing needs of the digital economy will require a trusted, secure and resilient next-generation connectivity infrastructure, including 5G and narrowband Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) sensor networks.

Tan Kiat How, Chief Executive, IMDA, said the organization is partnering the industry and international thought leaders to develop the roadmap.

IoT cybersecurity guide

Aside from the roadmap, the IMDA has also introduced the IoT Cyber Security Guide, which will help instill greater confidence in the use of IoT systems.

“This guide will list baseline recommendations provide checklists, assisting users to secure IoT systems against unintentional and malicious threats for the acquisition, operation and maintenance of the systems,” Puthucheary said.

In addition, the guide offers two checklists to help organizations systematically assess the security state of their IoT systems and to help IoT vendors develop better products and solutions to benefit Singapore homeowners.

IMDA said it will launch a public consultation on the IoT Cyber Security Guide to ensure that the recommendations in the guide are useful and comprehensive.

“Adopting an IoT approach will result in more devices in our ecosystem such as power sensors and power environmental infrastructure,” Puthucheary said.

“We need to rethink what is our regulatory approach and what is the way in which we can assure customers and users of the security of our IoT systems,” he added.

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According to the announcement posted on the government website, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIAC) and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) will cooperate with Internet providers to conduct the security survey.

The government acknowledges that while IoT devices have become widespread, cyber attacks targeting IoT devices are on the rise.

It said IoT devices, which includes sensors, routers, and web cameras, have features that are limited in performance, difficult to manage, long in the life cycle, and easy to be targeted by cyber attacks. And equipment with poorly installed security measures may be infected with malware and used for cyber attacks.

The announcement specifically mentions the heightened need for security countermeasures as the country is hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games Tokyo Convention, and many other high-profile international events.

Based on the conduct of the investigation or survey, the post said strict safety control measures are to be taken based on the implementation plan of NICT and approved by the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications.

According to the document, testing will begin by mid-February and users of these IoT devices that are found vulnerable to attacks will be notified.

A report from Japan’s national broadcaster NHK World stated that NICT “will generate IDs and passwords in its attempt to randomly break into about 200 million devices, such as routers and webcams.”

NHK also quoted a communications ministry official asking the public for its support and understanding, especially as “researchers might unintentionally gain access to webcam images or stored data” and may constitute a violation of “the device owners' constitutional right to privacy if their identities were revealed.”

The government, however, has given assurances that no data will be leaked.

According to a report from MIAC Cybersecurity Office, two-thirds of all attacks in 2016 were targeted at IoT devices; hence, the necessity for countermeasures. And one way to detect device vulnerability is to test for inadequate password settings, among others.

Trust certifications for IoT devices have been gaining ground. In November 2018, Mozilla issued a comprehensive guide on smart connected things as they might pose some online risks to consumers at the height of the year's online shopping season.

Mozilla’s gadget guide provides a framework for understanding the risk factors to consider before buying a connected device.

In December 2018, ThingsCon Berlin launched the "Trustable Technology Mark," the goal of which was to help consumers make informed purchases.

Governments have also started introducing regulations on the sale and manufacture of internet-connected things, such as the law passed in California in September mandating built-in security features to protect devices against unauthorized access.

The UK followed suit with the introduction of the world-first IoT Code of Practice to ensure the security of connected consumer devices at the design stage.

In Asia, the Bangkok Post reported in November 2018 that that regulatory conditions for IoT and related devices will start to be implemented this year.

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In a press statement released on Thursday (January 31), the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and OpenFog Consortium said their common goals include the development and promotion of industry guidance and best practices for fog and edge computing.

Founded in March 2014, the IIC is a global, not-for-profit partnership of the industry, government and academia whose members include small and large technology innovators, vertical market leaders, researchers, universities and government organizations.

OpenFog, on the other hand, is a consortium of high-tech industry companies and academic institutions working on the standardization and promotion of fog computing in various fields. It was founded in 2015 by  Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft, Princeton University, Dell, and ARM Holdings.

The merger brings OpenFog members into the IIC at a time when their complementary areas of technology are emerging in the mainstream.  

“The combined organization offers greater influence to members, more clarity to the market, and a lower-risk path to the future for end users,” said Stan Schneider, CEO of Real-Time Innovations (RTI) and Vice Chair of the IIC Steering Committee.  

“We are excited to take the first steps toward integrating the OpenFog Working Groups, Testbeds and Use Cases with those of the IIC,” added Matt Vasey, OpenFog chairman and president, and director, AI and IoT business development, Microsoft.

With this development, the IIC Steering Committee, which guides the strategic direction of the organization, has elected two OpenFog principals: Ron Zahavi, Chief Strategist for IoT Standards, Azure IoT, Microsoft; and Mung Chiang, John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering, Purdue University.

Zahavi has extensive experience in all aspects of technology management and solution delivery, 18 of those related to IoT solutions. Dr. Chiang, on the other hand, was previously the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor at Princeton University and founded the Princeton EDGE Lab in 2009.

“We are looking forward to our continued work at the IIC strengthened with the addition of OpenFog. The combined organization will cover the edge to cloud continuum and leverage the international diversity of its members, regional committees and testbeds,”  Zahavi said in a media statement.

Dr. Chiang added that combining the resources and membership of the two organzions is a major step in the evolution of IoT and embedded AI.

Fog computing, also known as edge computing or fogging, is a term created by Cisco that refers to extending cloud computing to the edge of an enterprise's network, according to Webopedia.

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The milestone, achieved at the end of December 2018, means wider availability of LoRaWAN networks, which makes it easier to deploy IoT solutions with existing infrastructure.

The number of end-devices connected to LoRaWAN networks is also reported to have tripled since the beginning of the year, according to the alliance.

Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance, said features like firmware updates over the air and the fact that LoRaWAN is an open specification with a robust certification program ensure network and device interoperability.

“These benefits give confidence to the market that companies are future-proofed and can deploy solutions today with assurance they will work in the future,” she said.

LoRaWAN networks have been actively deployed globally throughout the year, with the Asia-Pacific and European regions showing the most growth, at 30 percent and 50 percent, respectively. Regional specifications continue to be established in all key regions.

Orange, for one, has selected LoRaWAN for its first network dedicated to the IoT in 2016 to address sensors and other affordable objects consuming little energy.

Ronan Le Bras, Head of Technical Strategy — Wireless Networks at Orange, said the Orange LoRaWAN network now covers over 30,000 municipalities and 95 percent of the population of Metropolitan France.

“In 2018, Orange Slovakia launched a service using LoRaWAN for Smart Cities use cases. And to support its international customers and French companies with needs outside of France, Orange Business Services launched on-premise LoRaWAN connectivity suitable for a range of applications especially in smart cities and industry, including energy and fluid management, on-site tracking, geo-fencing, waste control, environmental metering, lighting and parking monitoring,” he said.

In India, LoRaWAN has seen tremendous interest and growth  in the past year, according Ali Hosseini, Founder & CEO, SenRa.

“In that market alone we already provide network coverage in 30 cities to support IoT applications such as smart metering, smart parking, and smart waste management solutions and see no signs of this slowing as we enter 2019,” he said.

Julian Dömer, Head of IoT, Swisscom, said that In Switzerland, the Swisscom LoRaWAN network covers 96.6 Percent of the Swiss population. The mobile operator was among the first operators to roll out LoRaWAN nationwide in 2016.

Founded in 2015, the LoRa Alliance, which has more than 500 members worldwide, helps members closely collaborate and share expertise to develop and promote the LoRaWAN protocol as the leading open global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWAN connectivity.

In November 2018, it has formed a task force to promote LoRaWAN protocol in Japan.

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The NFC Forum, the global standards and advocacy association for NFC technology, recently signed a liaison agreement with AIM, an industry body that represents any organization that uses or develops technology around bar coding, RFID, and mobility technology, to help build the ecosystem for NFC for IoT and industrial applications.

This is in line with the association’s goal to partner with complementary technologies to use NFC to help connect and control the predicted 36 billion IoT devices in use by 2020.

Side by side with the agreement, the NFC Forum also announced the expansion of its ties with the Japan Automotive Software Platform and Architecture (JasPar) organization.

This would allow the two groups to work more closely together to expand the use of NFC in the automotive market, more specifically the co-development of NFC automotive use cases and requirements, co-creation of non-technical documents and the sharing of technical documents and specifications.

JasPar recently started a Digital Car Key group within the organization as a target application for NFC.

“The IoT and automotive markets are rapid growth areas for NFC technology,” said Paula Hunter, executive director, NFC Forum. “The agreements with AIM and JASPAR are joint opportunities to work with new technologies and develop interoperability use cases to promote the use of NFC in IoT and automotive applications worldwide.”

Under the NFC Forum and AIM agreement, the two organizations said they will work together to mutually educate the market and help build the ecosystem for NFC for IoT and industrial applications.

The alliance is considered essential to enabling adoption, growth and interoperability related to Automated Data Capture technologies and the enterprises that use this technology in the marketplace.

“AIM is excited to be part of this new partnership. Each organization has unique perspectives and industry expertise that will be valuable to this relationship,” said Mary Lou Bosco, COO, AIM.

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The new standard, called the ISO/IEC 30141, provides an internationally standardized IoT Reference Architecture, which the organization said will help ensure that connected systems are "seamless, safer and far more resilient."

Headquartered in Geneva, the ISO is an independent international organization of 162 national standards bodies which crafts world-class specifications for products, services, and systems.

Some of the well-known standards it has published include the ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment), ISO 50001 (energy efficiency) and ISO 26000 (social responsibility).

Over the years, however, it has developed standards for very specific niche segments, including standards for shoe sizing, the preparation of liquor for use in sensory tests, and standards to help develop new toilet technology.

An article posted on the company website by Clare Naden on October 26, 2018, cited that the IoT is already everywhere — from autonomous vehicles to precision agriculture, smart manufacturing, e-health, and smart cities.

"The applications are endless, but as the phenomenon explodes, so too does the need for trust, security and a base from which the technology can be developed further, with robust measures and systems in place," Naden wrote.

The article also quoted Dr. François Coallier, Chair of the joint technical committee of ISO and the International Technical Commission (IEC) that developed the standard, as saying that since the IoT is growing fast due to rapid developments in ICT, ISO saw "the need for a reference architecture to maximize the benefits and reduce the risks.”

The ISO/IEC 30141 was developed by the joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, subcommittee SC 41, Internet of Things and related technologies.

The new IoT standard came at a time when forecasts for IoT growth are robust.

Management and consulting firm Bain & Company estimates the combined markets of the internet of things to grow to about $520 billion in 2021, or more than double the $235 billion spent in 2017.

Regulations have started to be introduced in other parts of the world. In the UK, the government has released a voluntary IoT Code of Practice that seeks to ensure the security of connected consumer devices at the design stage.

This announcement followed the introduction in the US state of California of an IOT cybersecurity law that would require manufacturers to install built-in security features for connected gadgets to protect users against unauthorized access.

In Australia, the government has opened a new office to prepare for era of connected vehicles.

Meanwhile, here in Asia, the Bangkok Post reported that the Thai government may introduce IoT regulations starting next year.

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Click above to watch Mark Hung, Research VP, Gartner talks about the implementation process that follow an IoT journey.

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Headquartered in Beijing, the World Internet of Things Convention (WIOTC) gathers resources from more than 30 international IOT associations, standard organizations and more than 3000 IOT enterprises.

It includes among its members the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of IOT, Hong Kong IOT Association, Taiwan IOT Alliance, IOT Association of Guangdong Province, Alliance of Shaanxi IOT Industry, VDE, and the American Association of Industrial Internet.

The 2018 list was released at the WIOTC held at the China National Convention Center on October 20.

For the second year in a row, Chinese telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics company Huawei topped the list.  

The Guangdong-headquartered firm has a robust mobile phone business but has also focused on ICT infrastructure and intelligent devices. In its annual report for 2017, it said its outlook for 2018 is that “emerging technologies like IoT, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and 5G will soon see large-scale commercial applications.”

Seven other companies joined Huawei in the WIOTC Top 50 — China Unicom, China Telecom, Alibaba Cloud, China Mobile, Haier U+, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), and Softbank.

In comparison, there are 21 companies from the United States (North America) in the top 50, led by three California-based technology conglomerates Qualcomm (No. 2), Google (No. 4), Cisco (No. 5).

In Europe, 21 companies also made it to the top 50, led by German engineering and electronics company Bosch (No. 3), Dutch global semiconductor manufacturer NXP (No. 9) and German-based software firm SAP SE (No. 11).

The WIOTC did not disclose how the 500 companies in the list were chosen but it said the list was selected by a special selection committee composed of international experts and scholars from China, the United States, Germany, France, Japan, India, representatives of the IoT associations, and the WIOTC Expert Advisory Committee.

Since its introduction in 2017, the WIOTRL “has become the world's most powerful and authoritative ranking on IoT,” according to WIOTC.

The list has been used, since its introduction in 2017, to promote the development of the global IoT industry and the construction of its network system.

It also envisions to encourage global enterprises to transform and upgrade towards IoT.

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This came on the heels of the introduction of a landmark legislation in the US state of California — the IoT cybersecurity law — that also aims to have built-in security features that can guard against attack or intrusion.

The UK measure is also expected to guide manufacturers secure internet-connected devices, including home alarm systems, refrigerators, and toys.

The British government disclosed that the within the next three years, the projection is that over 420 million IoT devices will be in use in the country, and poorly secured devices can leave people exposed to security issues and even large scale-cyber attacks.

Prior to the release of the Code of Practice, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have undertaken a ‘Secure by Design’ review "to embed security in the design process of new technology rather than bolt it on as an afterthought."

While adherence to the code is voluntary, tech companies HP Inc. and Centrica Hive Ltd. have signed up to partner with the government in putting together the building blocks of IoT cybersecurity.

“The pledges by HP Inc. and Centrica Hive Ltd are a welcome first step but it is vital other manufacturers follow their lead to ensure strong security measures are built into everyday technology from the moment it is designed,” said Margot James, Minister for Digital.

Hence, the government has also published a mapping document to make it easier for other manufacturers to join the initiative.

13 guidelines

The document released by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport outlines 13 guidelines manufacturers of consumer devices can implement into their product’s design.

These include making sure that devices have no factory default passwords, which had been a source of many security issues in the past; implementing a vulnerability disclosure policy so that any issues can be acted on in a timely manner; keeping the software updated throughout the product lifecycle and ensuring software integrity; and making installation and maintenance of devices easy.

The Code wants manufacturers as well to design devices that can securely store credentials and security-sensitive data, ensure that personal data is protected, make it easy for consumers to delete personal data, communicate securely, and make systems resilient to outages.

The Code also defines the kind of devices that the ruling may be applied to and these include connected children’s toys and baby monitors; safety  products such as smoke detectors and door locks; smart cameras, TVs and speakers; wearable health trackers; connected home automation and alarm systems; connected appliances (e.g. washing machines, fridges); and smart home assistants.

“With the amount of connected devices we all use expanding, this world-leading Code of Practice couldn’t come at a more important time,” said Dr. Ian Levy, the NCSC’s Technical Director.

“We want retailers to only stock internet-connected devices that meet these principles so that UK consumers can trust that the technology they bring into their homes will be properly supported throughout its lifetime,” he added.

The Code, however, acknowledges that "supply chains of IoT products can be complex and international, often involving multiple component manufacturers and service providers."

As such, the code, at this stage, is only meant to initiate and facilitate a security mindset among stakeholders.

This initiative is a key part of the government’s five-year, £1.9-billion National Cyber Security Strategy.

The post UK gov’t releases ‘world first’ IoT Code of Practice appeared first on FutureIoT.

Research firm Frost & Sullivan estimates the country's future transport market to generate more than $16 billion in revenue by 2025.

To prepare for the arrival of automated or connected vehicles and other transport innovations, the government recently established the Office of Future Transport Technologies, with an investment of A$ 9.7 million, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack.

The government official said with the new office, the government will have an enhanced role in implementing future transport technologies in Australia. More specifically, the development and uptake of automated vehicle technologies and associated applications would be managed.

“Automated vehicles are on the verge of becoming commercially available here and the Australian government is taking proactive steps to manage the associated challenges and opportunities within that evolving and future transport landscape,” McCormack was quoted as saying in a news release.  

In an address to a Roads Australia event recently held in Sydney, McCormack emphasized the need for Australian governments and industry to collaborate effectively and develop the right policy, regulation, and infrastructure, to adapt to future technology use.

“Getting Australians home sooner and safer is a core focus of our government and the emergence of automated vehicles represents a significant opportunity to realize safety and productivity benefits while supporting Australian industry and innovation,” he said, adding that these technologies also have great potential to reduce the $27 billion cost of road crashes in Australia each year.

“I expect the Office to collaborate across governments to ensure automated vehicles are safe, to consider future infrastructure needs, to make sure cybersecurity safeguards are in place, and to support Australian businesses in taking advantage of new commercial opportunities.

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This was among the provisions of Senate Bill No. 327 signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown on September 28, 2018, the first cybersecurity law on the Internet of Things (IoT) enacted in the United States.

According to the law, “connected device” means any device or other physical objects that is capable of connecting to the Internet, directly or indirectly, and that is assigned an Internet Protocol address or Bluetooth address.”

These devices could be anything from phones to microwave ovens to refrigerators to thermostats and voice assistants to cars.

Setting a security standard for device manufacturers may have been a timely move as the installed base of IoT devices is forecast to grow to almost 31 billion worldwide by 2020, with the IoT market projected to be worth over $1 billion annually from 2017 onwards, according to Statista.

Mixed Reactions

Security firm Trend Micro commented in a corporate blog post that California's IoT law highlights the need for built-in security and the growing move toward security-by-design.

“Its enforcement could help reduce attacks through device vulnerabilities, incidents in which users are the frequent victims. More importantly, this law can reduce the burden of users who have had to compensate for the unstandardized level of security in currently available connected devices,” Trend Micro said.

The MIT Technology Review commented that “it’s not hard to see why such legislation is needed.”

It explained, “Barely a day goes by without some new report of hackers compromising all kinds of products, from web-connected dolls to security cameras. And billions of new connected devices will be flooding onto the market over the next few years.”

FutureIoT reported on October 8, 2018, that IoT-malware grew three-fold in the first half of the year.

Among the provisions of the new law is that “preprogrammed password is unique to each device manufactured” and the “device contains a security feature that requires a user to generate a new means of authentication before access is granted to the device for the first time.”

A Washington Post article, however, said that the law only protects against a small portion of cyber threats.

“But eliminating weak default passwords is an elementary move that only offers a basic safeguard against a sliver of digital threats,” the article stated.

“The fact that it's only California that's taking action — and is considered a trailblazer for such a simple step that many security experts think should already be a best practice — underscores the challenges facing policymakers and manufacturers when it comes to improving the notoriously poor security of connected devices,” it added.

The article, however, acknowledged that setting IoT security standards is “a step toward defending against cyber attacks such as the massive Mirai botnet that harnessed the power of hijacked devices to disable major websites in 2016.”

Broader implications

An article in the China Law Blog pointed out that “most IoT products being made in China by foreign companies are being sold in the United States, including California,” the new law has broader implications in China and maybe in other parts of Asia as well.

SB 327 defined device manufacturers as “persons who manufacture, or contract with another person to manufacture on the person’s behalf, connected devices that are sold or offered for sale in California.”

This places the burden of “equipping devices with a reasonable security feature” not only to contractors but more specifically the manufacturers of the device.

As the blog post pointed out: “It is important to emphasize that SB-327 does not impose any requirements on users of IoT devices, but rather on manufacturers. This will essentially mean that companies that manufacture qualifying devices may need to re-do or re-develop or maybe even re-invent their IoT products.”

Security-by-design has a long way to go, and both supporters and critics of the landmark California law are one in saying that this could just be the beginning of a long journey.

“It demonstrates the role governments and their respective regulatory bodies play in promoting security through guiding principles that can usher the safer development and deployment of IoT devices,” Trend Micro said.

Photo by Kai Pilger from Pexels[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Electricity is core in any urban infrastructure system and the key enabler of cities development, so IEC has a specific role to play in the development of smart city standards. Delivering the full value of standards to accelerate the development of smart cities and lower its costs also clearly needs a strong collaboration of all city stakeholders.

This White Paper explains what it needs to move cities to greater smartness; the what, who and how of smart city development. It calls for a wide collaboration between many stakeholders, including other international standardization bodies to ultimately lead to integrated, cost-efficient, and sustainable solutions.

This White Paper was prepared by the IEC Market Strategy Board (MSB) project team on smart cities in cooperation with Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS).

Click here to download the whitepaper.

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But it is in danger of increasing incremental failure because it is too big to patch, according to author, encryption guru, and premier blogger Bruce Schneier.

Schneier, CTO of IBM Resilient Systems, wrote a post this past June mainly focused on the disclosure of serious flaws in encryption standards OpenPGP and S/MIME, which are used by numerous email clients to keep communications private.

Proof of Concept for IoT vulnerabilities

A team of researchers had published a proof of concept that they could trick any of those vulnerable clients by altering an email sent to it, resulting in a plaintext copy of the email sent to a server controlled by an attacker.

One reason it’s a serious problem is that dozens of email clients were using a standard that has been around for nearly three decades. The researchers said they found that plaintext exfiltration channels existed for 25 of the 35 tested S/MIME email clients and 10 of the 28 tested with OpenPGP.

The other reason is that vulnerable people – journalists, political dissidents in repressive regimes, whistleblowers, and human rights advocates – rely on those clients to protect their privacy, and therefore their personal safety.

And it is all going to take a while to fix since, as Schneier put it, it involves multiple, “communities without clear ownership.”

“In this case, there's nothing wrong with PGP or S/MIME in and of themselves,” he wrote. “Rather, the vulnerability occurs because of the way many email programs handle encrypted email.”

Which led Schneier to what he sees as a much bigger problem, given that, “the Internet is shifting from a set of systems we deliberately use – our phones and computers – to a fully immersive Internet-of-Things world that we live in 24/7 … (where) vulnerabilities will emerge through the interactions of different systems.”

It also suffers, he said, from many vendors not even having the expertise and capability to patch the software in what they sell, because it is frequently designed by, “offshore teams that come together, create the software, and then disband …”

Many devices, he noted, aren’t patchable at all – the only way to “fix” a digital video recorder that is vulnerable to being conscripted as part of a botnet is to, “throw it away and buy a new one.”

Or, an example with a much higher risk to personal safety was the notice about a year ago from the federal Food and Drug Administration that 465,000 implantable cardiac pacemakers from Abbott (formerly St. Jude Medical) needed a firmware update to prevent an attacker from doing things like depleting the battery or causing “inappropriate pacing.”

The FDA said it would only take three minutes to update the firmware, but it couldn’t be done remotely – it required a visit to a doctor’s office – something that might not be quickly accessible for every patient.

Beyond that is the continuing explosive growth of the IoT – Intel has estimated that by 2020 – less than two years away – there will be more than 200 billion connected devices in use.

Bottom line

“Patching is starting to fail, which means that we're losing the best mechanism we have for improving software security at exactly the same time that software is gaining autonomy and physical agency,” he wrote.

Which raises the obvious question: What should IoT developers, manufacturers, and the software security industry do about it?

Schneier’s view is well known. He has testified before Congress in favour of government mandates for basic security standards for IoT devices because, as he as written on his blog numerous times, the market won’t do it. “It’s hard to see any other viable alternative (than government intervention),” he wrote.

Differing opinion

That gets mixed reviews from other security experts, in part because not everybody shares such a bleak view of the current state of the IoT.

Zach Lanier, principal research consultant with Atredis Partners, says he doesn’t think the situation is as ominous as Schneier does, but agrees that “the gap between ‘patchability’ of disparate components – from overall firmware to specific components like OS/RTOS, drivers, applications, etc. – is very wide and may certainly be growing, especially with the introduction of niche IoT vendors and their respective devices.”

But Jesse Victors, a security consultant with the Synopsys Software Integrity Group, said it simply isn’t the case that every, or even most, devices are built by a team that disbands as soon as it has completed a project.

“I disagree with the premise,” he said. “I see the emergence of IoT devices managed by well-known companies, such as Samsung, Nest, Tesla, Apple, Google, or Amazon. These companies have dedicated teams to their IoT infrastructure, respond to security researchers, and push updates on their own initiative or when pressured to do so.”

And regarding the design flaws in OpenPGP and S/MIME, Larry Trowell, associate principal consultant with Synopsys Software Integrity Group, said while, “patching the lack of authenticated encryption in the design at this stage would be a herculean task,” that the problem can be avoided simply by not using it, “in tangent with an automated software retrieval process, but for manual file verification and signature checks.

“Sometimes pieces of software just don’t work correctly together,” he said.

Useless regulation

And neither Victors nor Trowell think government regulation and oversight will fix the security problems that ail the IoT.

Indeed, the federal government has a poor track record securing its own data, never mind devices. Just two examples are the breach of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), discovered in 2014, and the compromise of National Security Agency (NSA) hacking tools in 2016.

“Government certification does not work for making cryptographic libraries secure,” Victors said, “and it will be equally ineffective for IoT security.”

He said he has seen proposals for federal certification bodies, “but I foresee them falling behind in technical understanding, not adapting to new technologies and connectivity relationships, encouraging IoT manufacturers to hide infrastructure, or generally being toothless.”

Trowell added that government involvement could, “infringe on the right to repair and the ability to tinker with devices.”

And Victors believes there are other, and better, “viable alternatives” to government regulation.

He said an independent, consumer-friendly organization could rank IoT devices in areas like, “whether it transmits user data overseas, whether it self-applies firmware updates, whether it is exposed to the public Internet, whether the company is maintaining it, and so on.”

A body like that, he added, could also coordinate the sometimes contentious relationship between security researchers and vendors when it comes to reporting the discovery of vulnerabilities.

Of course, a majority of the security failures that plague the IoT could be avoided by “building security in” to products from the start of the design phase throughout the development lifecycle.

But even that wouldn’t eliminate every vulnerability. Lanier said it will likely take a systemic overhaul. It’s not just vendors and developers who need security expertise, but platform manufacturers and service operators do as well.

“In some cases, they do provide sane and secure defaults, security features, appropriate feedback mechanisms for when something is ‘not okay,’ and robust, usable software/firmware update mechanisms,” he said.

“I don't know that there's really a clear answer on how to fix this en masse, but the IoT-device-du-jour building on a platform/stack that "doesn't suck" is a good start.”

Victors agrees that IoT devices must be designed to allow firmware upgrades easily – which is not the case in most WiFi routers in use today.

A huge percentage of them, “are rarely upgraded; their owners are not aware or not technically savvy enough to perform the upgrade, or the device itself cannot download the patches and upgrade itself.

“This absolutely needs to change,” he said. “We cannot assume that the first production version will be sufficient over the long term.”

Trowell’s view is that even though the market hasn’t fixed the problem yet, it remains the only viable way to do it. “I don’t think one country or one government mandating the fix is going to do much,” he said. “I think it will only change when the majority of consumers care and demand it.”

Will that happen? Lanier is dubious along with Schneier. “Outside of clued-in organizations or enterprises that actually do some kind of risk analysis on random IoT devices being introduced into their networks, I don't see most end users – consumers – really making security-conscious decisions any time soon,” he said.

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