Technology is changing the role of locksmiths. Change is underway in the form of increasingly intelligent “things” at ever lower cost capable of detecting and responding to almost anything you can imagine. There are issues, to be sure, about how to secure these things and around how they will all communicate. The Internet of Things (IoT) and more recently, the Web of Things (WoT), are all about these issues. But what does any of this have to do with locksmiths? To answer this, we first need to look at what specifically the IoT and WoT are, and what impact they bring.
What is IoT?
A May 31, 2018 Forbes article citing an Industry Insights Survey of 1,445 professionals around the world said “This shift toward more internet-enabled products has been dubbed IoT for short. This technology has gained steam in recent years as the cost of sensors declined and processing power increased thus making it possible to connect more things, people and devices. In a futurist world, everything in the surrounding environment could communicate without human intervention.”
In his book, The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Professor Klaus Schwab, the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains why he is convinced that we are seeing the end of the third industrial revolution, the “Information Age” and entering a new era. He sees us at the beginning of a revolution that is fundamentally changing the way we live, work and relate to one another. “I believe that today we are at the beginning of a fourth industrial revolution.” He observes that “we are witnessing profound shifts across all industries, marked by the emergence of new business models and the disruption of incumbents.”
An OnSolve blog post states that IoT is a game changer, and concludes that IoT is good for business. However, it also refers to IoT security as a “clear and present danger”, and warns “despite the clear benefits that IoT provides, security issues loom large. That’s because every Internet-connected sensor is a potential attack point for a hacker.”