Bracing Up for The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT), is fast gaining traction in the world presently and Nigeria must brace up to receive the phenomenal changes that will surely cine with it when it finally gains momentum in the country.

It is pertinent to state that Internet of Things is already being applied in some industrial processes, such as developing new chips and adding sensors with IoT in mind in some developed countries.

Very soon, IoT will become part of our everyday lives, just as the mobile phones have. This is why Nigeria must brace up as, very soon, it will hit Nigeria like a colossus.

Although, there are very few smart gadgets and equipment available in Nigeria today, such as smart refrigerators, smart TV's, etc , which are IoT-based, majority of Nigerians still do not k ow what it is all about.

Some mobile operators are currently adding new IoT connections, such as connected cars and smart meters to their networks, hence, IoT is growing rapidly. One of the applications of IoT today is that, a fridge can order for beverages from a supermarket when it is running out of stock without you bothering about that anymore. This and many more applications if IoT are being developed and put to use in developed countries by the day.

The question now is whether Nigeria is ready to receive the IoT phenomenon when it hits our clime.

This is because, for IoT to work effectively, there has to be the presence of fast internet network such as the 4G LTE and the 5G. The truth is that the 4G networks already rolled out by some operators is yet to cover a considerable area within the country.

The mobile operators should, therefore, direct their efforts at expanding the 4G LTE to cover a wider section of the country and start planning on how to achieve the provision of the much faster 5G LTE to meet up with the demand of faster internet provision that IoT will require to be efficiently applied when it hits our clime.

The government should assist the mobile operators to achieve this by providing the enabling environment.

At this juncture, I need to sound a note of warning that, when IoT finally hits our clime fully, Nigerians should also brace up to meet the security challenges that will come with it, such as fighting the activities of hackers.

As IoT is associated with household items, such as TVs, refrigerators, etc, they are easily susceptible to security threats.

The truth is that the regular antivirus may not be adequate to contain the threats of hacking these household items, hence, the need for more vigilance and application of more sophisticated antivirus programs.

If you are still in doubt that it is not possible to hack your home appliances, please, note that, a fridge, home routers and smart TVs were among 100,000 devices hacked to launch a spam email campaign in 2014, according to s study carried out. You can, therefore, see why the threat is real and the need for extra security measures to be taken.

Twitter, Paypal, and Spotify were among the sites made inaccessible recently after hundreds of thousands of connected devices were exploited to overwhelm the US-based web infrastructure company, Dyn, with traffic from millions of internet addresses.

A critical look at such attack depicts that security actions plans should be tightened, the hackers who struck in the US may have scanned the internet for vulnerable devices. This means that, to further minimise the threat of hackers, manufacturers of IoT items should pay more attention to security at the design stage.

In conclusion, I see Nigeria forging ahead with preparations to brace the odds as some progressive policies are already on ground but, these must be nurtured to fruition by seeing to the expansion if the 4G LTE and 5G LTE network provision to sustain the smooth use of IoT when it finally and fully hits our clime.