How do we fix IoT security without blocking interoperability and creating monopolies?
Jonathan Zittrain ( previously) writes, “There’s reason to worry about security for the ever-growing Internet of Things, and it’ll be tempting to encourage vendors to solely control their devices that much more, limiting interoperability or user tinkering. There are alternatives – models for maintaining firmware patches for orphaned devices, and a ‘Faraday mode’ so that iffy devices can still at least partially function even if they’re not able to remain safely online. Procrastination around security has played a key role in its success. But ‘later’ shouldn’t mean ‘never’ for the IoT.”
Zittrain’s 2008 book The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It holds up surprisingly well 10 years on: it predicted that security and copyright concerns would make walled gardens that would make it ever-harder for new entrants to compete, creating permanent monopolies for a few giants winners and stagnation in innovation, with ever-larger shares of the returns from technology going to investors rather than users or creators.