The Negative Impacts Of The Internet Of Things On Cyber Security

The Distributed Denial of Services in Britain’s HSBC Bank

The internet of things refers to the connection of the physical devices which generally include the home appliances and other related items to the internet.  These items are generally embedded with connectivity to enable direct connection and the exchange of data, software, electronics, sensors and actuators (Vermesan & Friess, 2013). A computing system is actually put in place to enable a unique identification of the embedded items.

The Incident chosen for this case is the Distributed Denial of Services executed in Britain’s HSBC bank in the year 2016. HSBC is among the largest financial institutions in the world based in Britain. On January 29^th, 2016, HSBC bank reported to his customers to have been targeted by the distributed denial of service attackers which led to its customers being disrupted from their easy access to their online banking portals (Brynielsson, Franke & Varga, 2016). The attacks were executed at an awkward moment for banking customers and this is a clear indication that IoT can be used maliciously by people with selfish interests. First, the day the incident was reported, it was a payday for many people and perhaps the most suspicious, it was just two days before the tax payment deadline in UK and as a result, millions of tax payers faced a 3% penalty because of not paying their taxes on time. Could it have been a plan by the tax department to exploit the citizens? This has remained to be question by the victims of the incident (Brynielsson, Franke & Varga, 2016).

Intelligent analysis refers to the process through which individual as well as collective cognitive methods are applied in collecting data and information from which meaning conclusions are made (Covington & Carskadden, 2013). From the impacts of IoT to different people, the arguments expected from different people are likely to be different. For those who have been hit negatively by the new technology, negative impacts are likely to ensue while for those who have reaped positively from this technology are likely to give positive feedback.  To avoid being biased, the paper will rely on data from both sides to settle at the conclusion. For that matter, data will be obtained from the victims who are believed to have been hit negatively by the IoT technology in HSBC bank of Britain as well as those of New York Magazine while on the other hand will consider the opinions of business organizations like Apple and Samsung (Brynielsson, Franke & Varga, 2016).

Intelligent Analysis

The internet of things involves a network connection of many devices which can create entry points of unauthorized personnel into the interconnected systems and gain access to crucial confidential information of the system owners (Sicari, Rizzardi, Grieco & Coen-Porisini, 2015). Some of the negative impacts of the internet of things on cyber security include:

Distributed Denial of Services as witnessed in HSBC bank, HSBC is among the largest financial institutions in the world based in Britain. On January 29^th, 2016, HSBC bank reported to his customers to have been targeted by the distributed denial of service attackers which led to its customers being disrupted from their easy access to their online banking portals. The attacks were executed at an awkward moment for banking customers and this is a clear indication that IoT can be used maliciously by people with selfish interests. First, the day the incident was reported, it was a payday for many people and perhaps the most suspicious, it was just two days before the tax payment deadline in UK and as a result, millions of tax payers faced a 3% penalty because of not paying their taxes on time (Brynielsson, Franke & Varga, 2016).

Most of the internet of things interconnected devices contains an open debugging system. Debugging refers to the process through which problems associated with computer programs or rather systems controlled by the use of computers through the internet which may hinder the correct operation of the programs are detected and then resolved to restore the program back to its operation mode. The debugging process begins immediately when a code has been written and continues as the code written undergoes combination with some other programming units in order to form software products. Programs with vast number of lines of code can ease their debugging process by use of various strategies with the most commonly used ones being code reviews, unit tests and pair programming. The difficulties associated with the debugging process vary according to the complexity of the systems, the programming languages used and the availability of the debugging tools. An open debugging interface associated with the internet of things devices means that the process is not secured and can be accessed by various individuals some of which are unauthorized and have bad intentions on the system (Elmaghraby & Losavio, 2014). The open debugging process provides an opportunity for the hackers to extend their harmful activities to the devices such as coding spyware which is a harmful code and highly affects the devices.  The weak protocols make it easier for many people to access the system’s confidential information and this poses great chances through which the systems may be harmed as majority of the users do not actually follow the appropriate determined practices of cyber security. The debugging process involves first making attempts towards reproducing the problem for identification of a bug, the program input is then simplified for easier debugging and this can be done manually by the use of an approach known as the divide and conquer approach, after all that the programmer can then operate various parts of the initial test case and check if the problem has been solved or it still exists. After the sufficient simplification of the test case, the debugging tools can be used for the examination of the program states and the tracking of the origin of problems within the system. Throughout this open debugging system, hackers can easily access the systems and also run the codes but harmful ones intended to bring down the systems or to access the valuable information which may be of interest to them.

Negative Impacts of the Internet of Things on Cyber Security

Employees and the IT experts may be located in different places. Many organizations have embraced the internet of things and adopted it in various ways. These practices are all aimed at improving the business value, which improves productivity (Xia, Yang, Wang & Vinel, 2012). This is done by producing more using less, meaning the production costs are lowered and profit levels are raised. Some of the internet of things techniques adopted by many businesses is the enabling of employees to work from their homes. The highly trained IT experts recruited by these organizations to oversee cyber security on the companies’ sites face difficulties in controlling the organizations’ system with the employees working at their home comfort zones rather than at the workplace with the IT personnel which could have made it easier for them to link the employees activities together and adequately control and protect them. The hackers or rather the unauthorized personnel take the advantage of the difficulties associated with the work from home technology and can break into the organizations’ sites and access the companies valuable data or even their customers data and anything of interest to them. Through this, the companies’ system may be tampered with and incur greater losses as even their accounts may be deprived of money through the unauthorized access to their systems.

Most of the internet of things device, have security build around them instead of the security being built directly into them. Direct building of security into the device before the hardware implementation into the system improves the device protection and testing can be done anytime, for the security. When the security is built around the device and a new hardware is implemented into the system, then it becomes the target for hackers as they attempt to poke and prove it weak. This means that the weak security may provide direct network access by the unauthorized personnel. Building security around the internet of things devices instead of building it directly into the devices therefore increases the chances of vulnerability to the unauthorized personnel external attacks.

Most of the internet of things adoption is not regulated in many countries. As the internet of things gains interest, majority of its activities which are adopted by many companies are not regulated by the country’s laws. There is the general assumption by many governments around the world that the internet of things is leading to technology advancements little do they consider the repercussions associated with the same. Many companies have come up with manufactured devices which violate the customers privacy as they are connected to the unprotected network which can easily be accessed by unauthorized personnel and check their confidential information. The manufacturers go a step further and put in place distortive terms of privacy on their manufactured goods which cannot be understood by the average consumer who is of middle level education which prevents the consumers from fighting for their rights in the court of law in case the products compromise the expectations in future. Governments should intervene and put in place rules and regulations governing the internet of things for consumer protection in terms of maintaining their information confidential and secure from being accessed by unauthorized personnel.

Open Debugging Systems

Internet of things compromises the privacy of individuals. Most of the public spaces are fitted with monitoring devices in the name of security purposes. These devices record and store peoples data without their permission and knowledge. For example, the data that is collected by fitness trackers is linked to the online user accounts. The information may be names, dates of birth, and even the email addresses. The information collected and stored despite being unprotected and vulnerable to cyber-attacks may be used in the ways the consumers or individuals did not anticipate. This compromise the individuals’ privacy as their information can be accessed by anyone and be used in various ways without their consent. People should be aware of the various recording internet of things devices collecting their data and should provide directives on how their data recorded should be used failure to which they have the option of suing the other party in a court of law.

Despite the fact that internet of things poses great risks on cyber security as it continues to grow at a higher rate, it has some positive impacts too. Some of these impacts are witnessed as businesses utilize them to maximize their profitability. Cisco Systems unveiled the following positive impacts:

Internet of things improves efficiency in many businesses (Li & Tryfonas, 2016). Various monotonous and vast data related tasks of an organization can be automated and be performed and continuously monitored by machines. This helps an organization to improve the accuracy with which it performs its tasks as the system errors can be detected and eradicated at early stages. This enables the business organizations to save time as they improve their productivity and also ensures that the employees within the organization are satisfied and retained for continued business operations.

Internet of things improves the decision making process. The analysis of large data enables the formulation of smart decisions (Karnouskos, 2011). Every decision made can be attributed to the analysis results with minimum assumptions. Almost all the business aspects can be evaluated based on the analyzed data. Better decisions made means that efficient production is undertaken and thus minimizing the production costs. Also new ideas can be generated from the analyzed data which can be in the form of forecasts from the analyzed data.

Internet of things enables business organizations to generate revenue (Jeschke, Brecher, Meisen, Özdemir & Eschert, 2017). First the internet of things maximizes productivity by lowering the expenses and improving efficiency. As the process continues and the business gets used to the internet of things business operations, it can generate new functions which aid the business in realizing more revenue. Those businesses which play it safe within the market by the use of the internet of things and outdo their competitors generate more revenue and hence high profits than the others.

Remote Workforce

Structured Analysis Techniques refers to notations in form of diagrams which are designed to help people to descried and understand systems (Moran, 2010). This technique allows the definition of the organization’s need for information technology developments for use in industrial information systems, and to explain and to explain and show the manufacturing processes and the procedures to be followed.

This is a crucial analysis tool which is used for the understanding of the requirements for change in various organizations (Thomas, 2013). It enables the analysts to properly investigate and understand the forces and the factors which are supportive or controversial to a given outcome. This helps avoid premature judgment without having critically investigated the scenario outcome or rather the scenario results in terms of its profitability or drawbacks. This may also be termed as the feasibility study of a given scenario. By use of this analysis tool, analysts can determine the strength and the weakness of the determinant factors and propose the strategies to either reduce or improve the effects of the determinant factors. For a desired change to be achieved, the equilibrium must be disrupted by either increasing or improving the conditions favoring the change or reducing the restraining forces.  There are always forces or rather factors which strength the achievement of the desired change and those which weaken or hinder the achievement of the same.

From the incident of HSBC bank DDoS attack and another same case witnessed in New York Magazine in 2015 and besides the many cases IoT has been praised of, it can be considered to have both positive and negative impacts on the cyber security. The negative impacts of the internet of things on cyber security has been discussed above and the following factors have been formulated; open debugging interfaces associated with most internet of things devices, the adoption of the internet of things technology by businesses which has enabled employees to work from their home challenges, most of the internet of things device have security build around them instead of the security being built directly into them, lack of government laws to regulate of the adoption of the internet of things technology by majority of businesses in various countries and the compromise of individuals privacy by the internet of things. The positive impact of the internet of things on businesses is that it enables them to improve their efficiency, make better decisions and generate more revenue. From the formulated factors, the following model has been generated to represent the scenario:

Security Built Around Devices

From the force field analysis, it is clear that the forces for have been outdone by the forces against.

SWOT analysis is a short form for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. It is used to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats faced by business organizations (Hill & Westbrook, 2012). The intelligent analysts evaluate these four elements, draw conclusions and then can predict the future with great certainty.  SWOT helps in determining factors for exploitation as well as the weaknesses, potential opportunities and risks which might have negative effects. Considering the impact of the internet of things on cyber security in accordance to its positive and negative impacts outlined above, some strengths’ which have greatly lead to the adoption of internet of things though faces serious cyber-attacks are the efficiency in businesses production processes, aid in better decision making and generation of higher levels of income. The weaknesses associated with the internet of things in as much as cyber security is concerned is concerned are the open debugging interfaces associated with the internet of things which poses great risks for attacks from the hackers, challenges in security maintenance by the organizations’ IT experts since with the internet of things adoption organizations make it possible for their employees to work from home, the building of security around the internet of things rather than building it directly into the devices, lack of government laws to regulate the internet of things adoption in various countries and the compromise of the individuals privacy associated with the internet of things. The internet of things has a bright future as it is being adopted by many businesses in their productivity and thus it has a great opportunity for expansion. Internets of things have various threats considering its future. Hackers can now illegally access the businesses and individuals crucial information, what about the future lifetime when there will be many IoT devices connected to the internet which will not be easy to manage? The following SWOT structure technique has been used to illustrate this case:

From the SWOT diagram, it is clear that the weaknesses outdo all the other parts.

Structured brainstorming is a process which involves a group of individuals who actively contribute new ideas in an environment which is non-evaluative. This analysis tool is used by many organizations to solve problems within the organization.  The participants are provided with guidelines with which to follow in the entire process. This analysis tool is of benefit to organizations as it involves the collection of valuable ideas from all the team members concerning a specific issue and also promotes equality with the organizations as each team member gives an opinion which is respectable by all the other team members.

Inadequate Regulation

Steps to be followed

1. The objective is clearly stated. For our case, the main objective is to investigate the impact of the internet of things on the cyber security. The Victims of the HSBC bank DDoS attack should be aware of what is expected from them during the session.
2. All the participants are given a chance to give their ideas, for our case each team member should give ideas of how he or she feels or thinks of the internet of things affects the cyber security
3. Every team member’s idea or suggestion should be highly respected without any criticism
4. The process is repeated until all the points are exhausted
5. A review of all the points is done and the duplicates are discarded.

From the structural analysis of the impact of the internet of things on cyber security from the HSBC bank incident, various factors were determined which either have negative or positive impact on the cyber security (Byres & Lowe, 2014).  The negative impacts of the internet of things on the cyber security include the open debugging interfaces associated with the internet of things which is used as an opportunity for attacks from the potential hackers, security maintenance by the organizations’ IT experts is a challenge due to the fact that the internet of things adoption organizations makes it possible for their employees to work from home and hence are not near the IT experts to easily protect the companies’ sites, the building of security around the internet of things rather than building it directly into the devices; the introduction of the hardware with the security build around the internet of things devices is a potential loop hole for the hackers to have access into the device’s information, lack of government laws to regulate the internet of things adoption in various countries which may lead to customer rights violation as they are not fairly treated and the compromise of the individuals privacy associated with the internet of things as their data is collected without their knowledge and actually used for various purpose without their consent.

Internet of things though poses great risks to the cyber security also positive impacts business organizations’ productivity. Businesses can improve their efficiency in production by automating the production process. This means that mistakes which may be present in the production process are detected in earlier stages and corrected accordingly. The vast data analysis associated with the internet of things provides basis for businesses to draw crucial conclusions, make better decisions and predict the future with greater certainty. Businesses are also able to generate high revenue as they minimize production costs and outdo their competitors.

Conclusion

The internet of things involves the connection of the physical devices to the internet for easy and control of the activities involved. The process involves a vast number of devices linked together for the exchange of data. With the internet of things, businesses can use the various ways available to improve their value (Jing, Vasilakos, Wan, Lu & Qiu, 2014). Cisco unveiled that this comes along with various negatives effects as the connectivity and the constant exchange of data associated with the internet of things poses a great risk for the compromise of the information. The major negative effects which act as a treat to the cyber security include the open debugging interfaces associated with the internet of things which poses great risks for attacks from the hackers, challenges in security maintenance by the organizations’ IT experts since with the internet of things adoption organizations make it possible for their employees to work from home, the building of security around the internet of things rather than building it directly into the devices, lack of government laws to regulate the internet of things adoption in various countries and the compromise of the individuals privacy associated with the internet of things. The positive impacts of the internet of things on business organizations include the efficiency in businesses production processes, assistance in better decision making and generation of higher levels of income. Internet of things is gaining interest from various business organizations as well as the individuals and is anticipated to raise rapidly in future hence posing greater risks associated with the control of the many devices connected to the internet.

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