TL;DR: Companies do not invest enough money in security software for their IOT devices leaving them vulnerable to malware injection and hacking.

The idea of connecting our everyday physical objects to a network that allows them to communicate with each other and other devices such as our smartphones, computers, and tablets. Has been growing over the past years. Internet of things(IOT) is the name behind this idea. Many companies like Samsung, Sony, and LG are working on making domestic home items such as thermostats, cars, and electronic appliances can connect to the Internet and communicate with each other. There are many advantages of having physical objects connected to a network. Some of those advantages are automation and control; you have the ability to control these physical items wirelessly. They can also communicate with each other and complete tasks without human intervention. There is, of course, something that companies failed to do when creating these IOT items and that is their weak security software. Due to this failure, it creates risks for the consumer and companies as well.

When creating a new technology, security software should be one of the top priorities for development. There are many cases where companies do not focus on this critical component, and they instead, risk security over aesthetics. When implementing this idea of IOT onto physical objects, the primary concern that companies have is what the object will do? How can we make it appealing, so we reach our sales target? With what other devices we can connect it to so they can work together? These questions and the development of these devices all come before the final stages where security software is the last and definitive process of the product. Some might say that leaving the security for last is not a risk. On the contrary, some companies might have a budget already set on how much money they will spend on a product. In the final developments where the budget is pretty close, companies have to create a cheap security software for their product. This causes many risks when these products are available for purchase by consumers. For example, once an IOT product is already installed at home and is connected to the network, very sensitive information is on that network such as credit card numbers and personal information is accessible to that product. Anyone with significant networking knowledge could easily hack into this product and be able to infiltrate into the network and to steal this sensitive information. This is one of the primary reasons why security software in IOT devices is critical. Companies are leaving consumer vulnerable to hacking, and this puts them at risk.

Back in 2016, there was a major distributed denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Dyn servers, a domain company that controls a large portion of the Internet’s domain name system. Major sites like Netflix, Amazon, Twitter, and Paypal were down for hours. According to the theguardian, this DDoS attack was the largest of its kind in history. The reason why this was one of the greatest DDoS attacks was because the method the attacker used, which is called Mirai botnet. The Mirai botnet is composed of Internet of things devices. They become infected with malware that turns them into bots. The attackers take control of these IOT devices and start a DDoS attack on their desired server. This is the reason why the DDoS attack was the first of its kind. In the article, Nick Woolf says that, according to experts, the “DDoS attack that disrupted the internet was largest of its kind in history. The Mirai botnet was larger in scale than what most DDoS attacks could previously achieve. The question is, could this DDoS attack could have been prevented or reduced in size if the IOT devices had a better security software? The answer to this question is yes. If companies would spend a little more money on improving their security software, attacks like this can be prevented and hacks into IOT devices would be harder.

If companies do not start investing more money in their security software on their IOT products, their sales will start to decline. The reason why their sales will decline is because consumers would not want to buy a product that is not secure, they will be afraid of buying any IOT devices that would put their personal information at risk. There are many ways we can improve security software on IOT devices. Companies can start by increasing their budget by ten percent, and this will help by having more money to spend on the last implementation of their devices. Creating the security software at the beginning of production can also be another solution. Companies can start reevaluating their budget to see where they can reduce the cost of some things and place that relocated money into the security implementation of their devices. Others may challenge these solutions by implying that some of these solutions will cost more money or increase production cost and less profit will be gained. I argue that in the long run, these solutions will increase overall sales and companies can increase the prices of their product. Consumers would pay more for something that is secure rather than something cheap that has the same functionality but less safe.

When moving to a new era of technology where everything is connected and becoming more autonomous, we must ensure that security software is also advancing. As technology changes, there are people out there finding new ways on how to hack into these new IOT devices and use them to their advantage. Cyber threats have been on the rise, and with IOT becoming more of a trend in the modern world, we must ensure that they are secure enough. Companies should start investing more time and money on making sure their technology is secure and safe for the public. Some may agree or disagree with my statement but, if companies do not act as they move forward, they will be left behind. This would only cause more DDoS attacks that they would eventually not be able to stop. Consumers would stop buying their products, and large-scale hacking will increase over the years. Making IOT devices more secure would be beneficial to both companies and their customers because this prevents mass DDoS attacks and hacking into IOT devices.

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