Jessica Herrera-Flanigan

[Commentary] People often ask me if I “stay off the grid” by refusing to participate in online shopping and banking and express surprise when I tell them I don't bother. "Doesn’t it scare you?" they ask. "Aren’t you worried your information will be compromised?” Yes and yes, but staying away from the Internet isn't much of an option. Plus, as the recent retail store credit card debacles have demonstrated, bad things can happen to shoppers no matter if they are online or physically in a store.

What scares me more than someone stealing my information as I shop on Zulily or Amazon is how quiet the drumbeat has been on securing the broader Internet of things. As more of the items we use every day get online capabilities, our lives and the Internet of things are increasingly interconnected.

From my desk, I can control the temperature of my house, look at my wrist and determine that I need to get up and walk, check my fitness app to see that my cousin in Texas is now ahead of me in total steps for the week, and open and close the windows of my networked car. From my phone, I can control my TV, my front door, my security system and the baby monitor.

Yet despite the connectivity we are not seeing a massive amount of discussion about the Internet of things and cybersecurity. The concerns with Internet-of-things security are two-fold. The first is the ability to hack in and control aspects of our lives -- open my front door, turn the heat up at my house or disable my security system. The second is the vulnerability and theft of the data collected as part of the Internet of things movement to make our lives easier and more interesting.

[Herrera-Flanigan is a partner at the Monument Policy Group]