back to article Look who's here to solve the Internet of Things' security nightmare – hey, it's Uncle Sam

The US government is working on a "green paper" – the first step in a formal policy process – on the internet of things (IoT). Titled "The Benefits, Challenges, and Potential Roles for the Government in Fostering the Advancement of the Internet of Things," the policy paper will take a broad look [PDF] at the "potential …

  1. Herby

    We're from the Government and here to "help"

    Run, don't walk to the nearest exit. The government can't help with much, and that that it does "help" usually gets really screwed up.

    Again: RUN!

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: We're from the Government and here to "help"

      I'm not entirely sure that the government doesn't have a big role here, at least on the municipal level. First of all, they will have to build, or encourage through tax incentives, many more recycling facilities to deal with the surge in broken or obsolete equipment. And then there's the increase in landfill requirements. They should probably start right now by buying more more garbage trucks.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We're from the Government and here to "help"

      Yep,

      The IoT will be useful for all sorts of things.

      1) The issuing of smart tickets for parking, speeding, jaywalking, swearing and gum chewing offenses. Watch Demolition Man if you don't get the reference or think it couldn't happen.

      2) Keeping an eye on people who refuse to dump their rubbish and recycle correctly

      3) Need to make sure those car regs and road taxes all stay up to date, too!

      4) Need to ensure parents keep their kids in the right school catchment zone.

      5) We will also want to know where all the spray paint cans are kept. This will be easier to enforce after we have confiscated everyone's firearms, pepper spray and numchuks.

      6) And for those damned unleashed dogs and stray cats, it's about time we implemented our new catch and "don't release" program.

      7) Did I miss anything ? Contributions welcome.

      IoT will create loads of new, high-tech taxpayer-funded jobs and mounds of new regulations to help keep the citizenry cowed, confused and cashless.

      In fact, with this brave new IoT future, the possibilities for increased government meddling and waste are endless! Ay wot?

      Now let's pass some more laws quick, before anybody else catches on to our plan !

      PERSONAL DISCLAIMER

      Regarding IoT, I am more of a universally targeted, roaming kill-bot kind of guy myself. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get any funding. I also don't get out much.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We're from the Government and here to "help"

      An upvote, but I'd recommend backing away slowly. If you look away, they jump, if you run they will send everything after you.

      Best to sneak out and hope they did not realise!

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Alien

        Re: We're from the Government and here to "help"

        So that's proof that the government is really the Weeping Angels?

      2. Gnosis_Carmot

        Re: We're from the Government and here to "help"

        They're coming. The feds are coming for you, but listen, your life could depend on this: don't blink. Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and *don't blink*! Good luck.

        <apologies to Doctor Who>

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > What the "key issues" are that impact the deployment of IoT.

    It's completely f'ing pointless on a metaphysical level.

    > IoT's "potential benefits and challenges." We can already think of some.

    Even if you could regulate bare minimum security, you can't stop the company from pulling the plug.

    > Possible roles for the federal government in helping to push IoT technologies.

    Please don't.

  3. a_yank_lurker

    Power Grab by Bureaucrats

    First question for the ferals is: "Do you know what you are talking about?" Second question for the ferals is: "Do you even know what the real problem is?" I doubt they can answer 1 affirmatively ever. As for the second, one of the major issues is in patch management of IoT devices by the manufacturer which is generally no existent. But the real issue for IoT is why is it needed in most cases other than as a marketing gimmick.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Power Grab by Bureaucrats

      There has to be a Dilbert strip for this exact situation.

    2. Captain DaFt

      Re: Power Grab by Bureaucrats

      "But the real issue for IoT is why is it needed in most cases other than as a marketing gimmick."

      The only thing most devices in any house needs access to is a control unit secured in the house whose only access to the outside world is SMS access to the homeowner's phone:

      Example texts:

      Unit: Milk low, get more please

      Unit: Central heat/air malfunction, call >repair contractor< please

      etc. etc.

      The only thing in the house that should notify a third party should be the home security system if an alarm is triggered, just like it does now.

    3. hplasm
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Power Grab by Bureaucrats

      'First question for the ferals is: "Do you know what you are talking about?" '

      "Sure! IoT! Internet of Tubes!"

  4. Chris G

    When you close the fridge door

    The light will no longer go out, it will instead monitor your eating ,drinking and whatever else you may want to put in the fridge.

    Not only will that leave you open to targeted advertising, it will, like so many other means of surveillance leave you open to profiling by the Guardians of democracy.

    Eating hummus or drinkng mint tea? Potential ISIS supporter!

    I may be paranoid but not as much as the people who would like to control the IoT. They just want to put more Petabytes of useless data into the Utah desert.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: When you close the fridge door

      Our society is post-paranoia. After Snowden any conspiracy you can come up with ... that's what they're doing.

    2. Richard Jones 1
      WTF?

      Re: When you close the fridge door

      Google have already proved that the whole set up is at best flaky and unreliable by pulling the plug on one whole set up of second rate, (because they are now to be unsupported) devices.

      IoT bah more like the Internet Direct Integration of Threats Including Chaos or IDIOTIC as a more correct abbreviation.

      Perhaps the biggest hurdle is TTIP. Who in the right mind would want to buy some crap that would be rendered unusable because the integration supplier decided to stop support and be protected from complaint by the stupid TTIP and from bypass of their blunder by the DCMA.

      One of my fridges is just about 41 years old, the other two a couple of years into life, so not too much point in worrying about what they will leak. Now examine the substance of the speculation, for fridges, first the in and out scanners, per door or per shelf? Then the product ID capability, in original cartons or put into tubs, bags or free, e.g lettuce, cabbage spring greens or whatever. So we now have a £200 fridge with a £1000? ID processor set, that should sell really well. Bigger fridges may need more costly ID and processing facilities.

      As for the rest of the toys for the indulgent wild eyed, I lived my life without them until now, Non IDIOTIC things, thermostats, timers light switches, got them all; that is not going to change any time soon.

  5. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    " ... the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) [...] has identified a number of issues it wants to focus on. They include: [...]

    Possible roles for the federal government in helping to push IoT technologies."

    If by that they mean the federal government will help to push IoT off a cliff I'm all for it!

  6. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Stricy liability would help

    If you sell an internet-connected device, you are liable to provide security updates for the reasonable lifetime of the product.

    Any published vulnerabilities must be corrected in a reasonable period of time, not exceeding six months of their publication.

    Withdrawal of Internet servers required for significant operation of the connected device within its reasonable lifetime shall require a full refund of the original purchase price and payment for the disposal and recycling of the device, as the device is no longer fit for purpose.

    This shall be reduced if the complete source code, build tools and special update hardware required are provided under a free open licence to everyone who has ever and will ever own the device, so they can modify it to work with an alternate server.

    I think that should kill the industry pretty dead.

    1. Tomato42
      Unhappy

      Re: Stricy liability would help

      the problem is that "reasonable lifetime" for them is a year tops, after all the PHB responsible would have changed department at least twice by that time

      also, the vulnerabilities should be fixed not exceeding 6 months of them getting to know about, not the public

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Re: Stricy liability would help

        "Reasonable" is what you can convince the jury.

        I like the phrase because it allows for things that are designed to last a few hours (light-up wristbands for a concert) and also things that should last for decades, like your HVAC.

    2. billse10

      Re: Stricy liability would help

      if youre talking about a device that is subject to any form of regulatory / other approval, make source code escrow a condition of the license to sell it; the moment a version stops being supported, code is published. Moment the company gets into any kind of financial difficulty, code is published.

      Downside - won't be long until it becomes "late on a 20p corporation tax payment, code published".

      Or, given political reality, "moment MPs realise some nice free publicity to be had, code published"

  7. Spaceman Spiff

    Uncle Sam? Are you sure that isn't Yosemite Sam?

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like