What Are Liabilities in IoT (Internet of Things)?
Understanding Internet of Things Liability
IoT security breaches can happen in any industry, from the smart home to the connected car to a manufacturing plant. However, the severity of the impact depends mainly on the individual system, the data collected, and the information it contains.
An attack disabling the brakes on a connected car, for example, or on a connected health device, such as an insulin pump hacked into administering too many drugs to a patient, can be life-taking.
Similarly, an attack on a refrigeration system housing drugs monitored by an IoT system can ruin a drug's viability if temperatures fluctuate. Again, an attack on critical infrastructure - an oil well, power grid, or water supply - can be disastrous.
Other attacks, however, cannot be underestimated. For example, an attack on intelligent door locks could allow a burglar to enter a smart home.
Or, in other scenarios such as the Target 2013 hack or other security breaches, an attacker could pass malware through a connected system - heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system in the case of Target - to erase personally identifiable information, causing havoc for those affected.
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