Do Androids dream of electric sheep?

Prisma Paper #1

Let's enlighten about the transition from IoT to industry 5.0

What does IoT mean?

Often when you read or talk about IoT it becomes common to associate it with the concept of industry 4.0 and it would not even be entirely incorrect, if it were nothing else that IoT is just one of the many means that collaborated in the development of the 4^th  industrial revolution. To clarify we must start from the definition of this acronym: "Internet of Things" refers to physical objects with built-in sensors that communicate with computers. Take SMART thermostats for example: Sensors monitor things such as temperature or motion, or any other changes in the environment. The actuators receive signals from the sensors and then react to the changes reported. Sensors and actuators communicate with computing systems via wired (such as Ethernet) or wireless (such as Wi-Fi or mobile) networks; computers can monitor or manage the health and actions of connected objects and machines.

What are IoT devices?

The IoT allows you to digitally monitor or control the physical world. So it’s quite easy to understand the level of penetration in everyday life of a myriad of devices that connect the 2 worlds.

Generalizing we could identify the fields in which IoT devices are used successfully and are still being  refined:

1. Human Body. Devices can be connected or implanted into the human body, including wearable or ingestible devices that monitor or maintain health and well-being, help manage diseases like diabetes and more.
2. Housing. Homeowners can install devices such as voice assistants, automatic vacuum cleaners or security systems.
3. Retail sector. Devices can be installed in shops, banks, restaurants and theatres to facilitate automatic control, extend in-store offerings or help optimize inventory.
4. Offices. IoT applications in offices could monitor energy management or building safety.
5. Environments with standardized production. In such contexts, including production facilities, hospitals or farms, IoT applications are usually aimed at increasing operational efficiency or optimizing the use of equipment.
6. 6. Environments with special productions. In specific environments, such as mining, construction, or oil and gas exploration and production, IoT applications could be used in predictive maintenance or health and safety efforts.
7. Vehicles. The IoT can help with condition-based maintenance of the vehicle, usage-based design or analysis of pre-sales for cars and trucks, ships, planes and trains.
8. City. IoT applications can be used for adaptive traffic control, smart meters, environmental monitoring or resource management.
9. Outdoor areas. In urban environments or other outdoor environments, such as railway tracks, autonomous vehicles or air navigation, IoT applications could involve real-time routing, connected navigation, or shipment tracking.

The economic potential of the IoT.

It is estimated that by 2030 the potential global value of the iot will rise to 12.5 billion dollars.

The potential economic value of the IoT varies depending on the usage context. IoT applications in factories and in human health contexts represent the majority shares of this total. The IoT in factories alone could generate up to 3.3 billion dollars by 2030, while under human health it could reach about a sixth of the estimated total value.

We could summarize in percentages of this total the following most common fields of use:

- optimise operations or make day-to-day management of resources and people more efficient (41%)

- health applications (15%)

- human productivity (15%)

- condition-based maintenance (12%)

Other groups include sales enablement, energy management, autonomous vehicles (the fastest growing cluster) and safety.

Cybersecurity and IoT.

As more devices are connected, the ways to "attack" them have increased tenfold.

Pre-IoT, a large enterprise network could have from 50,000 to 500,000 vulnerable endpoints to attack; with the advent of IoT these vulnerable endpoints have gone from millions to tens of millions. In McKinsey’s 2022 "B2B IoT " survey, concerns about cybersecurity were decreed as the main impediment to IoT adoption.

Evolving into a truly integrated network and achieving its huge value potential can depend on whether cybersecurity is overcome.

It is important to address customer privacy issues with connected devices. But cyber security management also involves the protection of sensitive equipment, such as pacemakers or entire production facilities, which, if attacked, could endanger the health of customers or the production capabilities of companies.

While there is no single winning approach to dealing with cyber security in the iot, six recommendations can be helpful in driving companies that want to implement the iot. 3 concern strategic goals to think about security iot, and 3 are actions to help companies set their organizations up for success:

1. Find out what IoT security means for your industry and business model:

an overview of the most relevant attack scenarios for a specific company and the understanding of the aggressors and their motivations will be a good basis for the development of additional strategies and budget allocations. Investments in safety must be targeted according to the most harmful risk to the specific activity or industry.

2. Define clear roles and responsibilities for iot security along the supply chain:

The iot requires a holistic cybersecurity concept that extends to the entire iot stack, at all application, communication and sensor levels. Of course, each level must be protected, but companies must also prepare for multi-level threats.

3. Participate in strategic discussions with legislators and collaborate with other stakeholders:

A company’s cybersecurity creates externalities that go far beyond the performance effects of the company itself and therefore must be addressed through the classic gap between government and business. Most current cybersecurity standards are insufficient because they are neither industry specific nor sufficiently detailed and neglect most levels of the stack iot, including the development of production and product. Legislators will eventually step in to address this gap, and companies must be involved in the discussion, or at least set the tone.

4. Conceive IT security as a priority for the entire product life cycle and develop relevant skills to achieve it:

Achieving cybersecurity throughout the product lifecycle requires organizational and technological changes. The organizational component implies a clear responsibility for IT security in the product and production environment. Some companies have acted by giving the Information Security Officer (CISO) responsibility for cybersecurity in both information technology (IT) and operational (OT). Whatever the structural configuration, alignment on targets is critical, as there must be strong collaboration between the CISO function and other departments, whether it be product development, production, or even customer service. In addition, new roles should be created that systematically integrate safety into all relevant products and processes.

5. Be rigorous in transforming mentality and skills:

Institutionalizing the idea that security is everyone’s business starts at the top. Executives should shape safety behavior and cultivate a culture where safety is evolving and people are rewarded for identifying weaknesses.

6. Create a contact point system for external security researchers and implement a post-breach response plan:

Companies must implement a single visible point of contact for notifications or security-related complaints iot. In the last two years, and especially in the iot context, there have been numerous examples of security researchers trying to inform a company several times after discovering a breach and society or not following at all, or the researcher who is handed over from one department to another without anyone taking responsibility for the matter. In addition, companies need a response plan for different attack scenarios. The consequences of an unprofessional response to an accident are often more damaging than the accident itself. In an iot world, incidents can affect the heart of a company’s operations, so cybersecurity must be part of business continuity management and disaster recovery planning.

What is the IIoT?

The Industrial Internet of Things, or IIoT, is among the advanced manufacturing technologies collectively referred to as Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

By integrating in the company, organization and technology, manufacturers can redefine their organizations to reap all the benefits of the industrial IoT: the IIoT to note.

But how to effectively implement theIoT at the industrial level?

The process of industrialization 4.0 is often halted due to a combination of technical and organizational challenges. From a technical point of view, many organizations still deal with "ancient" problems, such as how to deal with heterogeneous systems and modern application scenarios or how to determine which functions (eg supply chain management, production operations management, plant maintenance or resource management) should be supported by which applications and technical systems (for example, business resource planning or IIoT platforms).

The issue of whether to locate these systems at the production site or in the cloud is a matter of governance between IT, operational technology (OT), plants, and business functions. On the organizational side, companies often fail to change business processes or optimize IIoT solutions to allow for a wider application, thus losing significant value. People and processes need to change to reap the benefits of data-driven information that IIoT can generate and maximize the value of technology. This requires the commitment of the leadership to ensure that the IIoT is not simply an IT or OT initiative, but rather an effort at the organizational level.

The investment in economic terms could therefore seem the main stumbling block for the adoption of IIoT in small and medium-sized enterprises, but this is only partially true, in fact even the most structured companies that therefore have more sustained budgets, are faced with the same problems just described.

Wienke Giezeman, the serial technology entrepreneur and founder of The Things Network, offers insights into what IIoT can drive action. Its mission is to provide the world with a free and open data network.

He managed to provide the city of Amsterdam with coverage in 6 weeks and is now building a global network of iot data: "We have already seen, over and over again that in the industrial sector, you can not solve iot problems with money. It seems tempting to try to solve these problems by investing, but in reality, it is the creativity and push for simplicity that lead to the solution."

This insight makes us understand that a change of mentality must be the primary thrust, if it is not so the IIoT will remain perceived as an undertaking too difficult, when instead the key to success lies in the simplification of processes, in their optimization also through the introduction of new figures in the company able to confront with the existing and not only to support them.

While simplicity is the solution, it doesn’t mean that the road to IIoT is the same: companies must be supported by legislation and governments, so that the people and the transition to industry 5.0 will benefit from this revolution.

SOURCES:

“Cloud-powered technologies for sustainability,”

November 9, 2023, Bernardo Betley, Tommaso

Cariati, Fan Gao, Eric Hannon, Cindy Levy,

Francesco Parente, and Julyeon Seo

 “Cybersecurity for the IoT: How trust can unlock

value,” April 7, 2023, Jeffrey Caso, Zina Cole,

Mark Patel, and Wendy Zhu

 “IoT comes of age,” March 7, 2022, Michael Chui

and Mark Collins

“IoT value set to accelerate through 2030: Where

and how to capture it,” November 9, 2021,

Michael Chui, Mark Collins, and Mark Patel

“A manufacturer’s guide to scaling Industrial IoT”

February 5, 2021, Andreas Behrendt, Enno de

Boer, Tarek Kasah, Bodo Koerber, Niko Mohr,

and Gérard Richter

“Industry 4.0 adoption with the right focus,”

October 21, 2021, Matteo Mancini, Gustavo

Marteletti, Alpesh Patel, Laura Requeno, and

Tingfeng Ye