Can the Internet of Things connect with enterprise?

Interconnectivity is increasingly being used across a variety of sectors and industries as a way of improving efficiency and making our lives easier. Factories are connecting devices and machines as a way of speeding up production processes, linking conveyor belts with mixers and packagers, for example. Meanwhile, offices are managed via a network of sensors controlling everything from the lights to the locks, while artificial intelligence will be largely responsible for customer relationship management.

However, with these developments come new risks, and businesses should be aware of the best ways to protect themselves in this fast evolving environment. Many of the risks these devices will pose will relate to business interruption and health and safety issues. Imagine the devastation a failure in an interconnected hospital could have, or in machinery involved in the construction industry. Although the ultimate end goal is a series of completely autonomous machines capable of fulfilling any production task, in the short term these will need to be operated by humans until we can ensure this technology is failproof.

The threat of a cyber-attack is significant when it comes to a number of connected devices. If not correctly protected, hackers will be able to infiltrate other devices simultaneously, meaning they could potentially have access to larger amounts of private data. We have already seen law firms pursuing potential claims regarding TalkTalk’s data breach, and further claims are expected as this technology becomes increasingly commonplace.

Insurance has yet to come up with a foolproof system for covering the IoT, so we are likely to see a system similar in style to the way a black box works with car insurance. This would take into account the various risks at play in a business, enabling an insurer to provide individualised policies with a greater assessment of circumstances. At the same time businesses need to check carefully the terms of cover and exclusions to ensure potential risks are covered adequately.

However, should an incident occur, a key challenge will be determining liability and unravelling a complex chain probably including device producers, software suppliers, service providers and system designers, and tracing and accessing the data which will establish where any fault rests. New forms of expertise are already emerging, while data retrieval continues to pose challenges.