What we talk about when we talk about security and privacy

[Commentary] In discussions about the Internet of Things, the lines between the concepts of “security,” “privacy,” “data integrity” and “liability” quickly get blurred. To discuss these issues seriously, we must separate them out and clarify the most important issues that need to be addressed for each.

Security and privacy are a constant in every Internet of Things conference. In public institutions, security and privacy could be ranked as the number one concern. People are simply not comfortable with the idea of having 50 billion connected devices posing 50 billion potential threats. But I’ve found that talks that start with the words security and privacy are soon blended with the concepts of data integrity and liability. I’d like to drill down into these concepts to clarify what each of them mean for the Internet of Things and open the discussion on the most important issues.

[Asin is co-founder and CEO of Libelium, a hardware provider for wireless sensor networks used in Smart Cities and Internet of Things projects]