i3 - March/April 2017 - 14

Tech

By Brian Markwalter
PIPELINE

he accepted premise in consumer technology today is
that a device will be connected unless there is a reason
not to do so. Simply put, it is fairly easy to add internet
connectivity. It is why the Internet of Things (IoT) is
prominent in the news and was everywhere at CES. It's also quite
a change from 10 years ago when added cost and marginal benefit
tipped the scale the other direction. It certainly wasn't common
to see multiple radios in a device the way we do now.

Moore's law, describing the relentless
advances in chip capabilities, and
Metcalfe's law, which notes that the value
of a network goes up with the square
number of users, have worked in tandem
to make connectivity a given for most
products. It's cheaper and more valuable
to be connected. The relative ease of
adding connectivity begs the question
of whether it's being done well. Here are
two important questions design teams
should ask as they create the next wave
of amazing connected products.

The First Crucial Question
Does your product support IPv6, the
latest address scheme for the internet?
The original internet address space,
defined in the older IPv4 protocol,
14

MARCH/APRIL 2017

The Second Critical Question

"Are you building strong security into
your products?" The Mirai botnet attack
from last year highlighted the need to
follow well-known best practices to secure
connected devices. And if doing the right
thing for the collective well-being of
the internet is not enough, the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) will provide
motivation in its role of protecting consumers' privacy. The FTC has filed several
complaints against technology companies
related to security issues that put consumers' privacy at risk.
CTA recognizes good security design
is challenging especially for smaller
companies without dedicated security
experts. We are working on projects to
help the industry, including publication of
CTA-TR-12, Securing Connected Devices
for Consumers in the Home, which provides guidance to product designers and
managers on how to enhance cybersecurity; developing guidance for product
installers to get the best security out of
existing devices; and helping develop
and launch the Building
Security In Maturity
could only accommodate
Does your
Model (BSIMM) online
4.3 billion devices, and
product support assessment tool, that
these IPv4 addresses are
lets companies gauge
all allocated. The Internet
IPv6, the
how well they're
Engineering Task Force
latest address
addressing security in
saw this limitation
scheme for the
their internal processes
early and created IPv6
internet?
and end products.
more than 21 years ago.
CTA continues to work
However, the transition
with industry and govfrom IPv4 to IPv6 is slow.
ernment agencies to improve IoT device
IPv6 has more than enough capacity
security. We are looking at how to drive
for the future of the internet, but for now,
better awareness and adoption of existing
Internet Service Providers must connect
security best practices, evaluate the role
consumers' IPv4 devices by using elaborate
that industry-led certification can play
"transition technologies." These more
and even create public service announceconvoluted approaches of dealing with
ments to remind consumers that they
older technology challenge the performance and reliability of IPv4-only devices. need strong passwords, even for their
simplest IoT devices. ■
The good news is the tide has turned on
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

CHESKY W/ISTOCK

Design It Well

IPv6 adoption. Smartphones, tablets and
laptops are all IPv6/dual-stack enabled,
and they make up three of the top four
highest volume products sold in the U.S.
According to CTA's analysis, about 88 percent of units shipped in the top 10 consumer device categories are IPv6-enabled.

http://www.bsimm.com/ http://www.bsimm.com/ http://www.bsimm.com/

i3 - March/April 2017

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