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The internet of things: Opportunities and threats

03 October 2017 09:00 - 18:30
527045000

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Over the past decade the Internet of Things (IoT) has seen a huge growth in interest, due to its extensive applications and potential to rapidly increase productivity and change lifestyles. However, during this time the topic has also become entrenched in discussions about security, economic, ethical and legal issues. This meeting will address the IoT’s disruptive potential, and how the future of technology and society will be shaped.

This conference will describe the state of the art of the field, and highlight key issues which pose a challenge to the translation and adoption of technologies that fall under the umbrella of the IoT.

Attending this event

This open event is intended for participants from industry, academia and government who have an interest in the IoT.

Contact the Industry team for more information.

About the conference series

The conference is part of the Society's Transforming our future conference series, launched to address the major scientific and technical challenges of the next decade and beyond. Each conference will focus on one topic and will seek to cover key issues, including:

  • The current state of the key industry sectors involved
  • The position of the UK and how it can benefit from the technology
  • The future direction of research
  • The challenges faced in turning research into commercial success
  • The skills base needed to deliver major economic scientific advances
  • The wider social and economic impacts

The conferences are a key component of the Society’s five-year Science, Industry and Translation initiative which demonstrates our commitment to reintegrate science and industry at the Society and to promote science and its value by connecting academia, industry and government.

Organisers

  • Professor Dame Wendy Hall DBE FREng FRS, University of Southampton/Web Science Trust, UK

    Dame Wendy Hall DBE FREng FRS is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and is Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering.

    With Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt she co-founded the Web Science Research Initiative in 2006 and she is currently a Director of the Web Science Trust, which has a global mission to support the development of research, education and thought leadership in Web Science.

    She became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2009 UK New Year's Honours list, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 2009.

    She was President of the ACM, was Senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, a founding member of the European Research Council and was President of the BCS. She was Chair of the European Commission’s ISTAG 2010-2012.  She is currently a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Robotics and Smart Devices.

  • Professor Jeremy Watson CBE FREng, UCL/BRE/Institution of Engineering and Technology

    Jeremy Watson is Vice-Dean for Engineering Mission and Professor of Engineering Systems in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy at UCL. Concurrently, he is Chief Scientist and Engineer at the Building Research Establishment (BRE). Jeremy was previously Arup’s Global Research Director, and Chief Scientific Advisor in the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG). He has senior experience of research and technical direction in industry and universities, governing board membership at Innovate UK and EPSRC, plus service with NERC and HEFCE. He has served on two government SAGE panels (Flooding and Pandemics) and a Blackett Review on Cybersecurity of the Internet of Things. Jeremy is Chair of the Institute for Sustainability and of BuildingSMART UK. His specialities include research strategy, systems thinking, innovation processes, and emerging technology identification.

    Jeremy is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the ICE and the IET, where he will be President in 2016. He was awarded a CBE in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to engineering.

  • Dr Patricia Lewis, Chatham House

    Dr Patricia M Lewis is the Research Director, International Security at Chatham House. Her former posts include Deputy Director and Scientist-in-Residence at the Center for Non-proliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; Director of UNIDIR; and Director of VERTIC in London.  

    Dr Lewis served on the 2004-6 WMD Commission chaired by Dr Hans Blix; the 2010-2011 Advisory Panel on Future Priorities of the OPCW chaired by Ambassador Rolf Ekeus; and was an adviser to the 2008-10 International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) chaired by Gareth Evans and Yoriko Kawaguchi.

    She holds a BSc (Hons) in physics from Manchester University and a PhD in nuclear physics from the Birmingham University. She is a dual national of the UK and Ireland.

    Dr Lewis is the recipient of the American Physical Society’s 2009 Joseph A Burton Forum Award recognizing 'outstanding contributions to the public understanding or resolution of issues involving the interface of physics and society'.

  • Dr Jeremy Silver, Digital Catapult CEO

    Dr Jeremy Silver is CEO of the Digital Catapult. He is an author and entrepreneur specialising in digital media, big data, music and the creative industries. He is a non-executive director of a number of early stage companies in music and media. He is a member of the UK Creative Industries Council and was Executive Chairman of Semetric Ltd (acquired by Apple), CEO of Sibelius Software (acquired by Avid) and Worldwide Vice-President of New Media for EMI Group in Los Angeles. He was an advisor to the founders of Shazam. He co-founded Uplister in San Francisco, which was the world’s first playlist-sharing music service. He is the author of an acclaimed book Digital Medieval: the first twenty years of music on the web – and the next twenty. His discussion paper Blockchain or Chaingang was published by CREATe at the University of Glasgow, where he is an Industry Fellow.

Schedule

There is much hype around IoT with much discussion about what could be achieved if everything is connected – smart buildings, smart highways, smart and autonomous mines, for example . The reality of IoT is more prosaic. Many technical elements of IoT have been around for at least 20 years – distributed sensing, wireless connectivity, data processing. Indeed, point solutions for many notable IoT applications (process control, automation, for example) have been demonstrated - without any recourse to “IoT technologies”.

However, there is a strong sense that the world has reached a tipping point - ubiquitous low-cost sensing, pervasive communications, an ability to store and process huge amounts of real-time data – these are all driving both technology and business change. What is needed, and what will be the big paradigm shift over what has been done in the past, is to provide a standard way of connecting sensors and communicating data, coupled with a philosophy of open and reusable information.

This talk will focus on the IoT business proposition: First an open market for sensors, actuators, devices and other systems with standard interfaces. This will open opportunities for a large number of new device developers, reduce costs and build adoption in end-user industries. Second is an open market for data using common platforms and common standards to make data available to many users. This will open huge opportunities for many new companies and individuals to easily develop analytics and application tools. Third, and most important, is the combined use of these systems and data to transform business practice – increasing efficiency, improving safety, managing maintenance and maintain quality of product. There are endless business opportunities to apply IoT to business and industry – and realise much of the “smart” system vision of IoT.

Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte FRS, Chief Scientific Adviser, UK Ministry of Defence

Chair

Professor Dame Wendy Hall DBE FREng FRS, University of Southampton/Web Science Trust, UK

This session, on IoT Technology, will feature short presentations from our panel members, followed by a panel discussion open to the audience.

Professor Julie McCann

Professor Sadie Creese, Professor of Cybersecurity, University of Oxford

Professor Derek McAuley, Professor of Digital Economy, University of Nottingham

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi FREng, Professor of Computer Engineering, University of Southampton

Chair

Professor Jeremy Watson CBE FREng, UCL/BRE/Institution of Engineering and Technology

This session, on Security issues, will feature short presentations from our panel members, followed by a panel discussion open to the audience.

Professor Chris Hankin, Director of the Institute for Security Science and Technology and Professor of Computing Science, Imperial College London

Robert Hayes, Senior Executive, Global Engagement, root9B

Dr Irina Brass, Lecturer in Regulation and Public Policy Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, UCL

Chair

Dr Jeremy Silver, Digital Catapult CEO

This session, on Business and economic issues, will feature short presentations from our panel members, followed by a panel discussion open to the audience.

Caroline Gorski, Head of IoT, Digital Catapult

Elizabeth Linder, Founder and CEO, The Conversational Century

Charlie McMurdie, Former Head of Law Enforcement National Cyber Capability, Met Police

Dr Mike Short CBE FREng, Vice President, Telefonica

Chair

Dr Patricia Lewis, Chatham House

This session, on Social science, ethical, legal and global issues, will feature short presentations from our panel members, followed by a panel discussion open to the audience.

Maria Farrell, Internet policy consultant and writer

Professor David De Roure, Oxford e-Research Centre, University of Oxford, UK

Emily Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, Oxford Information Labs

Professor Laura DeNardis, Professor at American University Washington D.C., Author and scholar of internet governance and infrastructure

The internet of things from the perspective of cybersecurity

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging phenomenon that merges cyber and physical, brings together cyber infrastructure with the physical world. The IoT is believed to create new opportunities for economic growth and development, make the use of ICTs "smart(er)", improve the lives of users. According to a European Commission study the market value of the IoT in the EU is expected to exceed one trillion euros in 2020. Today it is impossible to predict all opportunities and challenges of the IoT. But it can be predicted that immense enlargement of activities in cyberspace, accompanied by a vast increase of actors in the field, will have a huge impact on all aspects of cybersecurity.  

In my presentation I would address the IoT from the cybersecurity perspective, more specifically the following questions:

-IoT and international security, including reflections of the discussions within the 2016-2017 UN GGE

-IoT and the security and privacy of individual stakeholders, including the role of private sector

The global effects of the IoT were discussed in the 2016-2017 GGE (Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security.1 The GGE addressed the issue under the section „Existing and emerging threats“. The group addressed the IoT in the context of the fast pace of technological innovation combined with rapid and widespread technology adoption and acknowledged that the IoT could be exploited with implications for international peace and security.  

At the same time also individual cyber threats will become more serious concerns for the IoT. Even when users take precautions to secure their information, there are factors that are beyond their control. Privacy risks include inter alia insecure data transfer, data sharing with third parties, application vulnerabilities. 

1 GGE could not produce a consensus report that it was mandated  to do pursuant to the UNGA resolution 70/237, but it had good discussions and made progress under almost all questions of the mandate, with the exception of applicability of international law to the use of ICTs. Therefore, the progress made by the GGE in other areas should not be ignored but rather addressed in different discussions.

Marina Kaljurand, Chair of Cybersecurity Commission, Dutch Government