IoT on guard, or how to make our world a little safer

We love detective stories about Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Commissioner Maigret, Erast Fandorin, or Nastya Kamenskaya, but let's try to imagine how the story of the Internet of Things (IoT) will affect their plot. Modern technologies make it much more difficult for criminals to make life - it doesn’t matter whether it’s about hacking a house, car theft or online banking fraud, there are smart solutions that offer multi-level protection. And if the authors of famous detectives wrote their works today, it would not be so easy for them to come up with a villain who would manage to escape from observation or to confuse the investigation! Let's get acquainted with the most cunning innovations created to protect against criminals.

Home protection

There are many innovative IoT solutions for home protection. M2M systems (machine-to-machine) alarms can be easily installed anywhere in the building, which significantly complicates the hacker's life. In addition, smart cameras are becoming increasingly common today, thanks to which people are able to look after their homes remotely via smartphones.

Among other things, the development of the Internet of Things has led to the creation of smart locks, which provide a higher level of security compared to traditional locking mechanisms. For example, the new locks of the global manufacturer of smart locks and safes Dessmann come with special machine identification modules (Machine Identification Modules) and secure elements (Secure Elements) that allow people to open the door using a smartphone.
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Users have the ability to create digital keychains for different locks and view the history of using the generated keys. To top it off, the system sends a notification to users in case of a door breaking attempt and turns on an alarm. The global smart lock market is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years, up to 18% each year, reaching $ 1 billion by 2024, in addition to improving security, creating additional convenience when sharing residential and office space.

Prevent car theft

In order to hijack a car, the criminal must firstly gain access to the car, and secondly, go unnoticed. Fortunately, with the development of the Internet of Things, two innovations have become available today that make it difficult to do both.

1. Virtual car keys. This solution assumes that the car is tied to a mobile application — it eliminates the need for physical keys that can be forgotten somewhere or that can be stolen. Now the criminal will no longer be able to hijack a car, having obtained the keys or using the master key. But here it is important to remember that virtual car keys require the use of appropriate solutions to ensure cybersecurity, because otherwise there is a threat from another category of intruders - hackers! There are five basic principles to be followed when developing a virtual key solution for a car, which we discussed earlier .
   
   Not long ago, Daimler AG decided to use the Gemalto Trusted Services Hub to create digital keys based on smartphones in the Mercedez-Benz E-Class models. You can open and close cars simply by attaching a NFC-enabled smartphone to the door and an installed application. You can also start the car with a telephone, even if it is discharged by simply inserting it into the charging dock and pressing the “Start” button.
   
   
2. The development of the Internet of Things made it possible to develop a system for finding a stolen vehicle. Today, many cars are equipped with GPS systems and cellular modems that help track their location. Even if the criminals managed to hijack a car, they are unlikely to manage to go unnoticed for a long time.
   
   The same technology can be used to protect smart bikes - for example, Vanmoof guarantees that it will find a bike in case of theft (and if it doesn’t, you’ll get a new one), while Mobike in Singapore and Manchester uses Geohto’s IoT and M2M solutions in smart locks issued to the rental of bicycles, not only to protect them from thieves, but also to track the technical condition of bicycles and redistribute their “fleet” to the places where the greatest need is now detected. Users also have the opportunity to find the nearest bike through the application installed on the smartphone. This solution has already been certified by the largest mobile operators in the world, so expanding to other markets will require a company with significantly lower costs.

To help the police of the smart city

Imagine that an experienced killer from the classic novel by Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal was caught using a street lamp. Not the most interesting plot twist, is it? However, fortunately for us, this technology today is possible and can be an effective solution to stop a criminal. For example, the ShotSpotter solution allows the authorities to calculate the point at which the shooting occurred, with an accuracy of 3 meters, as well as determine how many people are involved in the riots, and then pass this information to the police. This solution, built on the basis of the Internet of Things technology, can be integrated even into street lamps , which makes the urban environment more secure.

Machine learning

In addition to advances in the field of the Internet of things, various devices are becoming more intelligent, which allows you to find new ways to technological solutions to combat crime. For example, online banking fraud is a serious problem . Today, there are solutions such as Assurance Hub, which combine big data, artificial intelligence and biometric technologies to identify suspicious transactions and, if necessary, to automatically request additional verification of the user . This innovation makes it much harder for a cyber criminal to access confidential data.

However, before completely calm down and consider ourselves completely protected from crime, we must remember the need to properly protect the ecosystem of the Internet of Things. Although these innovations are capable of stopping traditional crime, in the absence of adequate protection, they can become easy prey for hackers, which makes it necessary to embed security software and hardware into new products at the very early design stages. Installing security updates to address detectable vulnerabilities is no longer sufficient in today's environment with constantly evolving cyber threats.

Perhaps you know other tricky ways to counter crime using IoT and other modern technologies? Internet-connected wallets and bags that convey current information about their whereabouts in the event of their theft? Or window frames that photograph everyone who tries to open the window? Share your thoughts in the comments below.