Context
Telecommunication Engineering Centre(TEC), under the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, has recently released a report “Code of Practice for Securing Consumer Internet of Things(IoT)” as a baseline requirement aligned with global standards and best practices.
About the guidelines
- These guidelines will help in securing consumer IoT devices and ecosystem as well as managing vulnerabilities.
- This report is intended for use by IoT device manufacturers, Service providers/ system integrators and application developers etc.
- As per the projections, there may be 26.4 billion IoT devices in service globally by 2026. Out of this approximately 20% will be on cellular technologies.
- Ratio of Consumer and Enterprise IoT devices may be 45% : 55%.
- As per the National Digital Communication Policy (NDCP) 2018 released by Department of Telecommunications (DoT), an eco-system is to be created for 5 billion connected devices by 2022.
- Therefore, it is expected that around 60% of 5 billion i.e. 3 billion connected devices may exist in India by 2022.
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What is IoT?
- IoT is a seamless and connected network of embedded objects/ devices, with identifiers, in which Machine to machine (M2M) communication without any human intervention is possible using standard and interoperable communication protocols.
- Phones, Tablets and PCs are not included as part of IoT.
- The internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people.
- All these are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
- A thing in the internet of things can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address and is able to transfer data over a network.
Significance of IoT
- The internet of things helps people live and work smarter, as well as gain complete control over their lives.
- In addition to offering smart devices to automate homes, IoT is essential to business.
- IoT provides businesses with real-time insights into everything from the performance of machines to supply chain and logistics operations.
- IoT enables companies to automate processes and reduce labor costs.
- It also cuts down on waste and improves service delivery, making it less expensive to manufacture and deliver goods, as well as offering transparency into customer transactions.
