The internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interconnected sensors and devices that are connected to the internet. This network of physical objects is able to collect and exchange data, making it possible for machines to communicate with each other and make our lives more convenient. With the help of IoT devices, organizations can monitor and control their assets remotely. 

As more and more sensors and devices are connected to the Internet of Things, we will continue to see new and innovative ways that these devices can be used to improve our lives. For example, an organization could use an IoT sensor to track the temperature of a warehouse full of perishable goods. By monitoring the data collected by the sensor in real time, the organization could take steps to prevent the goods from spoiling.

The IoT is transforming the way we live and work, and utilities are no exception. Dogtown Media works with a variety of companies to develop comprehensive IoT apps to better serve their customers. 

Utilities and the Internet of Things

The internet of things has the potential to transform the utility sector. By connecting devices and systems, utilities can gain a real-time view of their operations. This increased visibility can help to improve efficiency and identify issues before they cause problems. Additionally, the internet of things can enable new services such as demand response and smart grid applications.

Utilities can also use the data collected by IoT devices to improve planning and asset management. By understanding how their systems are being used, they can make more informed decisions about maintenance, upgrades, and new construction. In the future, the internet of things will become an increasingly important part of utility operations. By capitalizing on this technology, utilities can gain a competitive edge and improve their service delivery.

Potential Pitfalls

While this technology has the potential to completely change the way people live and work, there are also a number of potential problems that need to be considered. One worry is that as the IoT grows, the risk of cyberattacks will increase. 

Another concern is that the proliferation of sensors and data-gathering devices could infringe on our privacy rights. Finally, there is the possibility that malfunctioning sensors or incorrect data could lead to dangerous results. While the Internet of Things holds great promise, it is important to carefully consider these potential risks before moving forward. Dogtown Media helps companies consider all data privacy issues with our end-to-end iPhone app development service. 

Protecting Customer Data

In order to protect data, utilities must take steps to secure both their own systems and the devices that are connected to them. One way to do this is to encrypt data at all points of collection and storage. This makes it more difficult for unauthorized individuals to access the data and limits the damage that can be done if a breach does occur. 

Another important step is to limit access to data on a need-to-know basis. By carefully controlling who has access to which data, utilities can further reduce the risk of unauthorized access. Finally, it is essential to monitor systems continuously for signs of intrusion or unusual activity. By taking these precautions, utilities can help ensure that data remains secure when it is connected to the IoT.

Utility Internet of Things Phone Apps

Utility companies are beginning to develop phone applications that allow customers to monitor and manage their usage in real time. This capability not only helps to reduce waste and save money, but it also allows utilities to respond quickly to outages and other issues.

In addition, these apps can be used to track demand and optimize production, leading to a more efficient use of resources. As the IoT continues to evolve, it is likely that phone apps will play an increasingly important role in the utility industry, making it easier than ever for customers to stay informed and proactive about their energy usage.

Working with App Developers

A number of phone apps have been developed to help customers track and manage their utility usage. By partnering with app developers, utilities can ensure that their apps are constantly kept up-to-date with the latest technology. Additionally, app developers can bring a fresh perspective to the table, helping utilities to develop innovative new features that will improve the customer experience.

In a rapidly changing environment, it is important for utilities to stay ahead of the curve by collaborating with app developers. This type of collaboration between utility companies and app developers is important because it helps to ensure that customers have the tools they need to manage their energy use effectively. 

Speaking of being a top dog, we are proud to announce that we’ve been named one of the Top 100 companies on Clutch’s platform. According to their recent report, our performance and services in the market have managed to help us in securing a spot in this very lucrative list of amazing B2B companies. 

For those of you who are wondering, Clutch is an established platform in the heart of Washington, DC, committed to helping small, mid-market, and enterprise businesses identify and connect with the service providers they need to achieve their goals. 

Being featured as a leading developer on Clutch is truly a huge milestone for us. We couldn’t thank them and their team enough for making this award a reality. Lastly, we would like to extend our appreciation to our clients and partners for always believing in our team to deliver high-quality services and solutions for their businesses.

 “Clutch has been a great partner over the long-term, supporting technology developers like us to expand into new markets globally.” – Marc. Fischer , Co-founder and CEO

For more information about our services feel free to contact our team! We look forward to hearing from you.

IoT has the potential to change the customer experience for the better by prioritizing customer concerns with faster response times and adding value to products and services. Here are five ways IoT is improving marketing.

#1: Upgrading the Customer Experience

Using data generated from IoT applications, we can learn more about our customers to understand how they view our products, services, and brand. We can also optimize how we structure product displays, plan out e-commerce experiences, and advertise items to customers who have an obvious preference based on historical purchase behaviors. Amazon gives their customers “Dash buttons” so that the customer can place an order with the touch of a button when they remember they need a detergent refill or another delivery of a pre-picked grocery order.

This allows Amazon to meet their customers where they are without forcing them to find their phone, open the Amazon app, and take steps to place an order. Not only do Dash buttons save time and effort for the customer, but they also generate more revenue for Amazon through customer loyalty and repeat orders.

#2: Developing Customized Experiences

One of IoT’s biggest strengths is its usefulness in creating customized experiences and products for customers. Knowing the customer’s purchase intent, buying behaviors, and return patterns, we can use it to inform digital marketing and advertising strategies. We can also recommend more items that the customer is less likely to return. According to a significant majority of retailers surveyed, IoT has been shown to positively impact the customer experience, giving the retailers an immense advantage over competitors who don’t use IoT to glean information about their customers.

For example, McDonald’s collaborated with San Diego-based Piper, a Bluetooth beacon company, to greet customers on their smartphones when they entered the restaurant. In exchange for completing a survey, McDonald’s offered the customer a coupon to use at the counter. But the best part about the experience is that the surveys were sent to the manager while the customer was still in the restaurant, allowing the manager to quickly fix things and make amends before the customer left. This is as close to real-time customer support as it gets.

#3: Optimizing Pricing and Profits

IoT can help your business change up pricing strategies and product deelopment. Rolls-Royce has outfitted its airplane engines with integrated sensors that transmit the engine’s status and performance metrics in real-time to an IoT system. The company can watch over every engine and charge customers for replacement, repairs, and maintenance services at a fair price to both the business and the customer. This also lifts the burden off of the customer to keep a steady maintenance schedule of their own, and the business can offer an “engine-as-a-service” monthly subscription.

Rolls-Royce’s engine-as-a-service model bundles the engine’s base cost with potential repairs and maintenance fees using data analytics that tracks and monitors fuel consumption as an engine usage metric. IoT makes possible real-time monitoring of data, control over analytics, and the ability to take action quickly and on the spot. With enough creativity, IoT can unlock new products and pricing models for any company in any industry, making features like remote activation and deactivation a part of the package.

#4: Faster Transactions

Customers have shifted their views of online shopping from “Is shopping online secure?” to wanting a quick and smooth checkout experience. Marketing experts predict that the customer experience will grow so large in importance that it may leave pricing and product offering behind in determining the efficacy of a marketing strategy. IoT-enabled mobile apps can deliver the best customer experience at the right moment, and since it’s IoT, you don’t have to serve up a delayed experience; you can make an impression in real-time.

Walgreens partnered with Google Tango and Aisle411 to create an IoT-enhanced platform that offers customers a responsive customer experience. The platform offers a mobile shopping podium that allows customers to search for what they came to buy and locate it in the online and physical store for more convenience. The app allows customers to find what they’re looking for without finding an employee to ask for help. In return, the app gives customers relevant and personalized marketing offers and coupons.

Hilton Hotels use IoT as part of a high-end customer experience package for guests. It offers guests the ability to check-in to their room and get their room key by using only their smartphone. The app tracks small data metrics, like how many pillows the guests used, if they ordered room service, and much more.

#5: Connecting Products Together

Seamlessly connecting products together is the ultimate customer benefit and one of the best IoT features for customers. If your business can think how users think, you can create business relationships with seemingly unrelated companies and create an amazing customer experience. For example, for premium Spotify users, their playlists will automatically load whenever the customer boards an Uber ride. This takes away some of the interaction of asking your driver to connect the car’s Bluetooth to your phone and avoids the possibility of any technical difficulties or frustrations.

IoT Is Integral to the Future of Marketing

Marketing is increasingly becoming more data-driven, and the customer experience is growing as a priority for many businesses. With the added connectivity and tracking that IoT offers, customers will ultimately benefit from a better shopping and support experience, which should positively impact business growth and learnings. The sooner your business can figure out ways to improve your customers’ experience with product connectivity, real-time tracking and analysis, and personalization, the faster it’ll grow in the coming years.

Edge computing is growing in popularity and functionality, and it’s the perfect tool to interface with Internet of Things (IoT) applications to reduce cloud utilization and speed up analytics. As a result, edge data centers are proliferating, and they’re being used in cutting-edge 5G and distributed computing applications. In fact, by 2030, the Ericsson Mobility Report predicts that there will be 125 billion working IoT devices. Of those, 3.5 billion will need cellular IoT connectivity, and all of this connectivity will create 800 zettabytes of data.

Unifying Edge and IoT

Why is it so important to integrate edge with existing IoT systems? According to Jeffrey Fidacaro, a senior analyst at New York City-based 451 Research, edge is the “infrastructure topology that supports the IoT applications.” In other words, it offers a map of the relationship between devices and sensors and the holistic IoT application. Thus, says Fidacaro, it’s important to build a unified edge/IoT strategy that optimizes how you’re using your infrastructure and offers more options.

Without an integrated IoT solution that stores, organizes, and transforms data into actionable insights, enterprises are not spending their money wisely. They’re also leaving themselves vulnerable to critical operations issues and avoidable problems. By integrating an edge data center into an existing IoT application, we can remain “always-on” and connected.

Edge data centers also reduce response time by conducting calculations and analyses on the end device, rather than in the cloud. This can save several seconds of data transmission, and it can result in massive cost savings for the most expensive issues your business faces. For example, an edge computing sensor can let you know immediately when an important piece of equipment is starting to behave abnormally, allowing you to take action much earlier than you would have in the past.

Edge data centers are often built closer to end devices, but the data centers need their own facility and data monitoring. Because these sites can be located in remote, hard-to-reach areas, it’s best to utilize IoT to monitor, protect, and maintain the facility around the clock.

If you think integrating edge computing into your application can help solve your business needs, here are seven crucial features to look for in an edge-enabled IoT platform. With these functionalities, you’re sure to get best-in-class performance and full control over your IoT system.

#1: It’s Scalable

Make sure that the edge IoT platform you’re looking to contract with offers scalability. Not only does it need to offer the ability to scale, but it needs to allow you to scale quickly. After all, what is the point of working with cutting-edge technology if it doesn’t move fast when you need it to?

An example of this includes allowing you to collect and manage data from one location or across a number of global locations. Or maybe your portfolio size has grown immensely in the past few days, and you need more bandwidth to seamlessly take on the extra work. Your chosen edge IoT platform should allow you to continue generating critical insights without limiting your future or business’s potential.

#2: It Offers Cost-Effective Pricing

Whenever you’re working with innovative technology, it can seem expensive due to limited access and limited knowledge involved. But transparent pricing is vital to any business relationship, and edge IoT platforms are no different. When you want to upgrade or downgrade your features, there should be clear pricing for things like connecting to cloud analytics services or third-party applications without any added hassle.

#3: It’s Flexible for Integrations

The right edge IoT platform should plug into your existing systems without any major overhaul or development. It doesn’t matter if you’re using older equipment with new software or second-hand equipment with legacy software. Readily integrating into your current setup should not be a big ask from your new edge IoT partner.

#4: It Avoids Commissioning

To keep things moving quickly and seamlessly, the right edge IoT platform should be able to deploy new features or scale quickly without requiring onsite commissioning. Ideally, the platform should offer a single-source Bit API that integrates any analytics tool or feature.

#5: It’s Cloud-Based

It might not be clear from the offsite setup feature in #4, but having a cloud-based edge IoT platform is critical for those devices and sensors that need it. From there, accessibility, simplified connections and integrations, and easy setup are secondary but equally important requirements. Ultimately, the cloud reduces costs and eliminates the need for on-site programming tasks that often take up a lot of time and budget.

#6: It Allows for Ethernet Connectivity

An ideal edge IoT platform should be able to enable data access and transmission with hard-wired ethernet connectivity as a backup connection. The platform should also allow for an outbound IP port that offers a secure connection for data transmission.

#7: It’s a Comprehensive IoT Toolkit

A comprehensive toolkit can be flexible enough to be tailored to almost any business need. It should come with all of the essential tools you need to build an IoT solution without a lot of external help. IoT devices and sensors should be easy to install, and they should support a wide variety of data pipelines and transmission protocols.

Get an Edge on Your Competitors

Don’t settle for just any edge IoT platform. By performing the due diligence early on, you can save your business more in money and time. With edge integrated into your IoT system, you’re enabling true real-time analytics, monitoring of equipment and machinery, and facility management. Finding a platform that offers these seven features will set your business’s IoT system up for success.

More and more people are talking about the Internet of Things (IoT). It seems these days that IoT applications are everywhere changing people’s lives and how businesses and industries operate. But what is this promising, all-encompassing technology?

IoT is an emerging technology that will bring about a transformation in our cities, homes, and businesses, allowing us to operate smart cars that talk to each other, live in smart cities that reduce environmental impact, and automate business processes. Read on to learn about how IoT works, what it does to help us automate things, and how it’s already being used in real-life situations.

What’s IoT?

Today, the Internet connects us all to each other through social media and communications like instant messaging and email. But IoT takes this connection one step further by connecting devices and sensors together. In other words, your laptop may one day be connected to your thermostat, doorbell security system, and car.

IoT technology is a perfect fit when you might be thinking, “I wish I could start my car from my bathroom in the mornings so that it’s warmed up for my morning commute” or “I wish I could start the washer without getting up from the couch” or “My work could be done faster if I could automate these processes.”

When we talk about IoT, we are talking about connecting everything (yes, everything) to each other. That means we ultimately want to have a world that’s so connected that every device is connected to each other or to the Internet. As a result of this goal, many people become confused about the broadness of IoT, so let’s cover why it’s beneficial to connect devices and sensors to the Internet.

Why Is IoT Important?

Whenever something is connected to the Internet, it’s sending and/or receiving information. Have you ever checked out your Internet speeds to find an upload and download speed? That’s referring to the speed at which your Internet connection allows you to send and receive information or data. When we’re able to send and receive information, it can make our devices and applications smarter, allowing them to achieve more complexity without sacrificing quality or speed.

For example, smartphones can allow us to watch any video in the world. But the videos reside in “the cloud”, where your phone can ask permission to view it, and the cloud can stream it to your device. The smartness of the phone doesn’t rely on having a ton of data saved onto the device; it depends on its ability to communicate with another connected entity to receive information.

In IoT, you can put everything into one of three categories: first, sensors collect information and sent it to another device. Second, computers get the information and act on it (or save it to the cloud for later retrieval). Third, there are devices that accomplish both of these things by themselves. Connecting these three types of data transmitters can yield you an application for almost anything you can think of.

Data Transmission for Decision MakingSensors collect data over time, like motion, temperature, air quality, light, moisture, and nearly anything else you’d want to measure about an indoor or outdoor environment. When connected to the Internet, sensors send the information to another device or to the cloud. We can act upon this data depending on the conditions we set beforehand.

For example, agriculture is a great industry for IoT applications because farmers can collect data about nearly anything in the environment: weather, soil moisture, crop growth, and more. Using this data, the farmer can decide to forego watering his or her crops if a lot of rain is predicted in the next day. Sensors enabled machines to make sense of an environment.

Often, sensors can transmit this data in real-time or close to real-time, saving users a lot of time and effort. We already use real-time sensors to print out documents quickly, open our garage door upon clicking a button, and when scanning your library card to check out books.

Bringing Everything Together

When we use devices that can both collect and send data and then analyze it and act upon it, we are removing the need for a human to step in. For example, in farming, sensors are collecting information about the soil and other aspects of the environment. But instead of having the farmer keep an eye on all of the data so that he can manually turn on or off his irrigation system, we can directly connect the irrigation system to the sensors.

In fact, the irrigation system located in Ohio could be sending information to an analysis software being developed in New York City, and it would still take no effort from the farmer to ensure his crops get the best opportunity for high yield this year. Keeping up with this system for years can build historical data, allowing a computer program to optimize the performance of the farm equipment for the largest, juiciest crop yield and minimize any losses.

This is an example of just the soil moisture sensor and irrigation equipment. Imagine what else can be optimized when sensors are collecting information about temperature, light, air quality, and more. Algorithms work best with multi-dimensional data, so more data is always better for automation.

IoT Is Technology For a Brighter Tomorrow

IoT is all about connecting humans together better by connecting devices and sensors to computers and cloud services. This allows us to continuously automate, optimize, and improve our lives and businesses without a lot of human input. The world is going to work drastically differently in the next few decades, and it’s all possible because of IoT.

The Internet depends on DNS to deliver webpages and allow web access, but many people are unaware of what exactly DNS is, what it entails, and how it works. Keep on reading to expand your knowledge of one of the Internet’s most important features.

What Is DNS? How Does It Work?

DNS is an Internet tool that we all use every day without explicitly seeing it working. It makes browsing the web more accessible and easier to navigate. While browsers and computers look at websites with their numerical identifiers as IP addresses, like 123.45.678, humans are unburdened with memorizing these numbers to get to their favorite retailer or social media website. Humans actually see domain names, like facebook.com or nordstrom.com.

To make the transformation from numerical IP addresses to user-friendly domain addresses, DNS is needed. DNS translates the domain names we type into the browser into IP addresses for the computer and browser to understand and access. For users, DNS saves us headaches and complications that come with memorizing a string of numbers, not to mention multiple number strings.

To understand how DNS looks up the corresponding IP address and translates it for the browser, we need to cover the process of a DNS lookup as it r0utes information through four different servers: resolving name server, root name server, TLD name server, and the authoritative name server. These four servers handle different tasks in the DNS process and work together in tandem like a well-oiled Internet browsing machine.

When you type in a domain name, the resolving name server gets the request and sends it to each subsequent server in the search for the corresponding IP address. The root name server points the resolving name server in the right direction so that it can find the corresponding TLD name server. The TLD name server handles the last part of the domain name (.com, .co.uk, .org, etc.), and there’s a TLD server for every type of TLD. The last server, the authoritative name server, returns the correct IP address to the resolving name server, closing the loop.

A Real-Life Example

To understand more about each of the four servers, let’s go through a real-life example of the DNS process with additional details about parallel processes. Say you’re searching for dogtownmedia.com. You type dogtownmedia.com into your browser’s URL bar.

What happens next is that your browser will check its cache (internal memory) to see if you’ve visited our site before. Let’s say this is your first time visiting dogtownmedia.com. Because your browser doesn’t have our site in its cache, it’ll need to fetch its IP address manually.

The computer’s operating system sends the request for the IP address lookup to the resolving name server, which starts the DNS lookup process. The resolving name server says it doesn’t know the IP address, so it asks the root name server for it. The root name server doesn’t know it either, but it can narrow down the possibilities by asking the domain name’s TLD name server (in this case, .com).

The resolving name server asks the .com TLD name server if it knows the IP address for dogtownmedia.com. The TLD name server has a master list of all .com domains and verifies that dogtownmedia.com is on the list. It then tells the resolving name server to ask the authoritative name server for the IP address.

Ultimately, the authoritative name server has the correct IP address, and it returns it to the resolving name server. The resolving name server then tells your computer what IP address it just found for dogtownmedia.com. The computer sends the IP address to the browser, and the browser loads the dogtownmedia.com home page.

You might think this entire process takes minutes to complete, but in reality, it takes less time than it takes you to blink once. Let’s jump into how DNS works so quickly.

How DNS Affords Speed

DNS works so fast that you don’t even know you’re waiting for it to work its magic when you type in a new domain name. It happens so seamlessly and quickly that it seems built-in or not even there. But DNS has several speed optimizations put into place to ensure it works extremely quickly and efficiently.

One way, as we saw earlier, to save time is to maintain a browser cache. This cache is stored on your local machine in its memory. Once you visit a site one time, the IP address is logged for faster retrieval in the event you visit the website again. Caching helps circumvent the creation of a new DNS lookup request. Your computer’s operating system may also have a caching system that stores IP addresses. When your browser doesn’t find a match for a corresponding IP address, it first checks your computer’s operating system’s cache before launching a new DNS lookup request.

Another way DNS maintains its speed and efficiency is by running different types of queries. The three main types are: recursive, iterative, and non-recursive queries. The lookup request uses a recursive query to get the correct IP address from four DNS servers.

An iterative query will work to find an answer too, whether it’s an error message or an IP address. Iterative queries are used to check the browser’s and operating system’s cache for an existing IP address, but if there’s no cached IP address, the query will keep going down the chain until it gets an answer back. Non-recursive queries are the fastest type, and they are used to look up the domain name in the browser and operating system’s cache. If there’s no cached IP address, this query won’t keep pursuing the lookup request in search for an answer, however.

It’s easy to see how DNS could work quickly with these types of queries to help a user located in London access a website hosted in Singapore with a TLD of .sg.

The Beauty of DNS

DNS works in the background so efficiently that it’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly it has been activated. As users, we are highly dependent on DNS to work quickly and correctly for us. But without DNS, navigating the Internet would be much less user-friendly, and it would create more complexity in IoT development. Thanks to DNS, our jobs as IoT developers are a little bit easier to accomplish.

For senior citizens who were able to quarantine alone or live alone throughout the pandemic, technology has taken over many aspects of senior care so that nurses and family can safely ensure their patient and loved one is staying healthy and well. Internet of Things (IoT) applications like fall detection and alert devices, behavioral monitoring sensors, and malnutrition and dehydration trackers have worked tirelessly to support caregivers and elders alike during the pandemic. The hope is that these devices will identify signs of a larger issue so that it can be stopped before becoming serious enough to require hospitalization.

Fall Detection Devices

In elderly populations, falls are a major concern. Falls become more common with age and are the second leading cause of unintentional or accidental deaths worldwide. Thus, it is important to control as much as we can for falls both at home and in senior care facilities.

IoT technology can help caregivers prevent, predict, and detect falls by helping them record falls, pinpoint risk factors in the environment and the individual, and learn preventative and corrective measures. Conventionally, fall-detection technologies have used devices that the elderly person carries or wears. When the patient falls, they have to press the button on the device. This solution is great if your loved one is living across the country in Los Angeles while you’re in Atlanta.

But this method doesn’t account for patients that didn’t fall but don’t feel well enough to get up or for patients who haven’t been feeling normal recently. IoT can detect changes in the patient’s wellbeing by monitoring for discomfort and wellness. IoT sensors can help caregivers track their patients’ progress for days or weeks at a time and compare metrics to see if their patient’s health is declining, which is a risk factor for falling. This can support caregivers to act earlier and provide more care to make up for the senior’s deteriorating wellbeing.

Staying Home Longer

Research shows there may be a link between moving out of the home and into a senior care facility and dying earlier. For many elderly patients, it’s important for them to stay somewhere familiar and accessible to their families. IoT can help families remotely keep an eye on their senior family member by sending daily information about the patient’s health and wellbeing without any action necessary from the senior. When used with tele-assistance services, IoT technology really shines for seniors.

Companies like Vitalbase and SeniorAdom are working on remote assistance technology using IoT systems. Their tools include geolocation pendants, motion detection sensors, and wrist band devices. This hardware is supposed to automatically detect changes in behavior, motion, physical strength, and cognition.

By anticipating risks, sending early notifications to family and caregivers, and acting quickly in an emergency, these companies are making it possible to protect our seniors without expending more money, time, and effort. For example, SeniorAdom uses a self-learning algorithm and a smart box connected wirelessly to sensors in the senior’s home. With these devices and software, the company can detect abnormal situations or critical problems and send a warning to relatives and caregivers. SeniorAdom also uses motion sensors and door sensors to create a general daily schedule of the senior so that abnormalities are more obvious when they occur.

A Look at the Sensor Technology

These IoT-enabled sensors work on an 0G network which is used to send small amounts of data over a larger distance. They don’t pick up any personal or private information while they detect differences from the baseline conditions and movements. 0G devices also utilize low amounts of energy, making the overall cost a lot lower for the family.

For devices that run on other networks like cellular devices, it’s possible to utilize 0G as a backup network to ensure a stable connection for around-the-clock supervision and emergency communication. Vitalbases’s Vibby OAK is an automatic fall detection device worn on the senior’s neck or wrist. It connects to a cellular device (like a smartphone) but uses a 0G network when the cellular connection is unstable or unreachable. At healthcare and senior living facilities, devices operating on the 0G network can communicate with existing nursing call systems to keep medical staff updated in the event of an emergency.

More Autonomous Living

Many seniors want to continue an independent, autonomous, and healthy lifestyle. By outfitting their home and body with several devices and sensors in an IoT system, it’s possible for relatives and caregivers to remain vigilant, proactive, and connected without having to ask their seniors to leave home for good.

Almost 70% of organizations globally have dealt with an IoT cyberattack in the past few years. These worrying numbers are expected to grow as IoT increases in growth and popularity. Here are some ways to secure your IoT devices, ranging from complex to simple adjustments you can make in your home or office.

Strengthen All Passwords

This is the easiest thing you can do, so do it first. Set strong passwords and use a variety of usernames (other than ‘admin’) to secure your IoT network and devices. It’s difficult enough to remember passwords as it is, but try to change your passwords every 1 to 3 months. To help maintain a single source of truth for all of your username and password combinations, use a password manager to organize them.

The password manager also helps you ensure that none of your passwords are too similar or too easy to guess. Sharing passwords and usernames puts you at a higher risk for a successful hack, so do your best to avoid patterns across your passwords. It’s also important that, when you first add a new device to your existing network, you go into its settings and customize the device and its entry points to use different usernames and passwords.

Many hackers traditionally try ‘admin’ first to get into the network or device, and eliminating that possibility makes the hacker’s job much more difficult. Customize the device’s settings to enable only what you need.

Secure Your Connection

Look into boosting your router’s security. It connects your IoT devices and network to the Internet, and it’s vulnerable to exploitation and hacking by bad actors. Replace the default network name, admin username, and admin password with stronger alternatives. And like we mentioned in the previous section, make sure you change the username and password regularly.

Next, investigate whether you’re using the highest level of encryption on your router. If your router doesn’t support WPA2, you should highly consider upgrading to a new router that does. You can also consider further fortifying your internet security by separating networks for IoT devices and personal devices.

Don’t Forget Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) can be a pain to go through every time you need to sign into an IoT application. On the other hand, it serves as a lifesaving tool when you forget your password or if someone changed your password without your permission or knowledge. Depending on how strong you want your security to be and what types of data your IoT devices store (a baby monitor versus a refrigerator), you may want to add more authentication devices and steps to increase the complexity of your security setup.

MFA can include something simple like adding your smartphone into the authentication chain or something more complex like a physical authentication which involves inserting a physical key into a device to log in. Sometimes, physical authentication could include verifying the time and location or verifying biometrics before logging in.

Update and Upgrade Software

Software is always improving and changing, and even if the fundamental code of the software doesn’t undergo extreme change, it’s important to keep software updated, patched, and upgraded as soon as these fixes are available to apply. Updating software can result in a nicer user experience, but more often, it involves fixing newfound bugs and patching up vulnerabilities in the code. If you fail to keep your devices updated, you can leave your entire network susceptible to attack.

Encrypt Your Connection

You can further secure your Internet connection by encrypting the data that goes through data transfer within your network. This can mask sensitive information and disguise any vulnerabilities in your network infrastructure and setup. A VPN is a great tool to obfuscate what’s going on within your network: VPN changes your devices’ IP addresses, encrypts data within and leaving it, and it often comes with a kill switch to shut off your Internet connection if the VPN connection is interrupted or stopped.

Monitor Your System

Further strengthening your Internet security may be worth the investment of a network monitoring tool. If your IoT system has a complex and elaborate network of IoT devices used for business-critical operations, it’s imperative to have an eye on all devices and data flow 24/7. A monitoring system tracks the health of your devices and sends out notifications if anything abnormal is detected, whether that’s a problem with the data flow, an interruption in the Internet connection, or access by an unauthorized party.

Try Segmenting Your Network

As we mentioned earlier, separating your network might be a good idea if some of your devices put your network at more security risk than the others. In segmenting your network, you’re splitting it into separate sub-networks that are mostly independent and isolated from each other. Don’t worry: you can still have the networks communicate if you need them to.

In comparison, a singular network that contains all connected devices, employee devices, and sensitive data transmission is instead protected with a firewall or endpoint protection. But if that firewall or endpoint protection fails, the entire network is at the mercy of the hacker. Thus, it is more prudent to segment your networks and prioritize the security of each network differently, based on the devices and data transfer involved in each network.

Staying Safe Moving Forward

To protect yourself, take any and all measures, even if they involve more investment and time on your part. If you experience a security breach, it can cost more in time and money than if you’d slowly and steadily worked on securing your network all along. At Dogtown Media, we prioritize cybersecurity in our applications from Day 1, and we think that’s a great rule of thumb for your own security needs.

Do you maintain your home’s IoT security? How much time and money do you invest in it to ensure you don’t fall victim to a hacking attempt? Let us know in the comments below!

The roll-out of 5G across the entire world is going to largely affect how we connect and network with each other. In business, 5G will boost the stability and connectivity of existing Internet of Things (IoT) applications while bolstering new IoT systems. It won’t take long for our cities, homes, and ways of living to adapt to all of the benefits 5G will bring, not to mention the added communication abilities, like staying in touch while traveling or connecting to the car next to you in traffic.

Ultimately, 5G will effect change in society, digitalization, and economies in almost all aspects of life and business, but for now, 5G operators are working to ensure mobile connectivity is strong and stable before expanding their focus to other industries and fields. Once that’s done, work will pivot to optimizing connectivity across consumers, businesses, and supply chains.

The Growing Need for Connectivity

Every year, the world’s data volume increases, and with more Internet-enabled devices than ever, 5G has become crucial. Soon, existing technologies won’t be able to meet IoT’s requirements unless 5G is available everywhere. As an example, in 2017, Germany doubled its data volume from 2015, reaching 1 billion gigabytes in a single year.

Experts calculated the number of connected devices and sensors reached between 50 and 500 billion in 2020. With these numbers growing every year, 5G offers unlimited possibilities for our global economy and productivity. Once we reach a certain global data volume, we will need 5G to maintain and scale up business and consumer needs.

LTE Today, 5G Tomorrow

3G made it possible for us to use our phones on a mobile connection with relative ease and speed, and it catalyzed the popularity and manufacturing of smartphones. With the roll-out of 4G LTE, data transfer rates skyrocketed, and it remains the most popular and most-used network even today. 4G LTE offers speeds up to 100 megabits per second, although many of us will experience those speeds first-hand on and off.

It’s possible to boost LTE bandwidths for download speeds up to 4,000 megabits (4 gigabits) per second, and while this is super fast, LTE was designed for smartphone use. On the other hand, 5G will be optimized from the ground-up for IoT connectivity. 5G speeds are faster than much of the Wi-Fi connections available around the world: stable speeds up to 20 gigabits per second aren’t out of the question with 5G.

In comparison, the first smartphones with 1G were eight million times slower than phones will be with 5G. When you put it that way, it seems 5G opens up all kinds of new doors. Now we can dream of transmitting data in real-time with no quality loss. We can theoretically connect 100 billion mobile devices around the world and access them all at the same time. 5G offers stable connection quality and an obvious increase in speeds (moving up to 500 kilometers per hour). That’s like driving from New York City to Los Angeles in nine hours, rather than the 41 hours it would normally take by car.

And besides smartphones, in our increasingly digital world, 5G will be a major asset in applications to many areas and industries. As a result, 5G will become the key technology for connectivity in the near future.

Unlimited Potential

In addition to IoT, the Industrial IoT, a major consumer of mobile connectivity technology, will benefit immensely from 5G. 5G will offer continuous connectivity and data transmission between robots, systems, machines, and people. And analysis will be done on-demand using edge computing, which is an emerging technology that we won’t be able to utilize fully without 5G.

The number of connected sensors and devices is expected to grow at a massive rate, and problems will be pinpointed in real-time rather than after the fact. Optimization can be done in real-time (or close to it), minimizing downtime, revenue loss, and loss of productivity. 5G will enable humanless tasks, not just in driving, but for industrial tasks like picking up and delivering goods, machine-to-machine communication, and loading and unloading materials.

Connectivity in a Digital World

Digital transformation (thanks in part to the pandemic) is driving the growth and expansion of many emerging technologies. But in the field of network connectivity, digital transformation is leading the charge for what to focus on and for use cases. High-quality connectivity is the most important end goal of 5G, especially for both large and small IoT systems. A dropped connection could lead to the factory floor production getting halted.

IoT and 5G experts know that all of the possibilities are still unmapped and unknown. As we arm ourselves with more stable and scalable emerging technologies, we will uncover more ideas, innovations, and opportunities that were previously thought of as unfeasible. Smart farming, which involves keeping an eye on all animals at any given time, crop health, soil moisture, changing weather, and much more, will finally be possible and closer to real-time observation than ever before. Accordingly, we’ll see a large increase in sustainability and efficiency in food production.

5G’s Prospects

Although we don’t know when 5G will reach market maturity, it’s obvious that it will bring about more possibilities, efficiencies, and connectivity than we’ve ever experienced before. It’s unclear what new ideas will be unlocked by the power of 5G. But one thing is certain: The world will never be the same when this next level of network connectivity is fully realized.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is extremely vast and encompasses millions of devices. By 2025, the number of IoT devices is projected to grow to 25.1 billion, according to the GSM Association. The rapid growth and expansion of IoT have cybersecurity experts worried about built-in security vulnerabilities and devices that stop getting updated at some point.

Security researchers are warning that history could be repeated if IoT developers don’t take care of a known Windows security issue that’s decades old. The vulnerability can be leveraged to manipulate millions of IoT and operational technology (OT) devices and even create a large-scale DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack across devices at multiple companies.

9 Issues To Be Aware Of

Security researchers at Forescout Research Lab have found and dug into security vulnerabilities in some TCP/IP stacks (internet protocols). They’ve named the nine new issues “Number:Jack”. The research lab has already been researching vulnerabilities in TCP/IP stacks and strategizing how to mitigate them as part of an initiative called Project MemoriaThe latest security issues stem from a foundational part of TCP communication within embedded devices, specifically the generation of the Initial Sequence Number (ISN). ISNs work to ensure every TCP connection between two computers or connected devices is unique so that third parties can’t intercept or manipulate the machine-to-machine connection. To ensure the connection is unique, ISNs are randomly generated so that the ISN isn’t predictable or known in order to take advantage of it for hacking, hijacking, or spoofing.

These are network security fundamentals that have been known and studied for decades, but the researchers found that this simple concept wasn’t executed correctly in IoT devices. The ISN is not generated randomly, and it can create patterns that create vulnerabilities for the unique machine-to-machine connection. Daniel dos Santos, a research manager at Forescout, says that Windows, Linux, and IT departments have mostly fixed these vulnerabilities, but IoT is lagging way behind.

Immense Potential for Malicious Intent

By making the TCP connections more predictable, hackers could close the connection ahead of time, creating a denial-of-service attack by preventing data transfer between the two devices. They could also just hijack the connection and add their own data into the transfer, while actively downloading sensitive information, adding file downloads as malware, or using HTTP responses to send the victim machine to a website with malware.

According to dos Santos, “It’s not difficult for us or an attacker to find this type of vulnerability because you can clearly see the way the numbers are generated by the stack is predictable.” Using these predictable connection ISNs, attackers could take things a step further and bypass authentication protocols to gain access to additional networks. For their part, Forescout disclosed the known vulnerabilities to relevant maintainers and vendors of TCP/IP stacks in October 2020.

The Attack Spread

The affected TCP/IP stacks were also found in several open-source stacks that were analyzed by Forescout. These included uIP, Nut/Net, picoTCP, FNET, cycloneTCP, and uC/TCP-IP. Additionally, the vulnerabilities were found in enterprise-level solutions like Dallas-based Texas Instruments’ NDKTCPIP, Siemens’ Nucleus NET, and Microchip’s MPLAB Net.

While the majority of vendors subsequently patched their devices with security software (or are in the middle of patching), one vendor hasn’t responded to Forescout’s report. Forescout didn’t release the name of the company. However, Forescout did say that devices at risk of cybersecurity attacks include medical devices, storage systems, and wind turbine monitoring systems are chief among the devices vulnerable to the TCP/IP stack issue. Dos Santos says that Forescout looked across multiple TCP stacks because it shows that IoT security is repeating IT history again across several stacks. Most importantly, Forescout wants people to critically look at what happened before and how such an attack could affect their IoT system and devices. Everyone should do this, “all down the IoT supply chain,” according to dos Santos.

Forescout did not publicly release information on the exact devices for each of the vulnerable nine stacks so that their manufacturer and end-user can remain protected until security patches are issued. In the meantime, Forescout released open-source software to help companies with IoT devices identify any stacks that may be vulnerable according to the research done as part of Project Memoria.

The company recommends issuing security patches if a vulnerability is detected so that attackers are prevented from gaining access into the device and/or network. If a vulnerability is found and it’s not possible to patch the IoT or OT device, Forescout recommended moving the vulnerable devices onto a segment of the network that reduces the risk of an attack or compromise.

Securing All IoT Systems Is a Must

IoT is reaching new heights as an emerging technology, but it would fare better if it took security lessons from a variety of fields, like IT, operating systems, and networking. To fail a test of fundamental network security likely means there are many more basic security issues brewing inside IoT and OT devices.

dos Santos added, “The foundations of IoT are vulnerable and not just for one vendor or specific device – it’s across several types of devices and the software components used in these devices. It’s often that they share similar types of vulnerabilities.” We cannot allow more large-scale DDoS attacks to occur, especially when they could’ve been avoided in the first place.