The Internet of Things is Coming to Kill You, Maybe

As technology becomes further and further integrated into our daily lives, the risks that technology poses become ever more present, even if those risks are at times exaggerated by the media. Case in point, the raft of articles concerning the threat of ‘car hacking.’ Some of the articles make the threat seem imminent and continuous while others are dismissive, but there remains a possibility, under very specific and rare circumstances, that someone could hack a car. And this is just one of the risks that are on the rise in the era of the Internet of Things.

The Internet of Things is when many, most, or all of the everyday objects around us are able to wirelessly communicate with both us and each other. And the stuff that can communicate isn’t just the expected things like our smart phone, wireless keyboard, TVs, computers, etc., but also the unexpected, like our fridges and washing machines, our cars and bikes, even our small consumer goods like liquor bottles. It won’t just be that our fridge can tell us what groceries we’re running low on, it’s the groceries themselves that will let us know.