Keeping the lights on (or off)

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 Keeping the lights on (or off)

• Someone famous said If you can switch a light,
  you can topple an empire. I dont have an
  empire, but it still got me wondering after IOT
  happens, how will I control my lights?
•  
• People have a terrible track record managing the
  security of their digital IT infrastructure.
  Whether the hackers are bad guys trying to steal
  our identity, commercial entities observing our
  behavior, or government spies, we have very
  little assurance these days that our electronic
  transactions are secure or private. If you have
  any illusions about your security, watch this 20
  minute video brought to my attention in a blog
  from Tozny.

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I guess one day there will be an iPhone or iPad
app that lets me manage my policies. For example,
TV with ID 12345 can control lights when user
Mike is logged in from his house. The smart
device makes sense, because it has a lot of great
sensors that will make security stronger and more
invisible. Apple has been patenting biometric
authentication mechanisms, for example, two
factor authentication, that can identify you
without your even knowing it.   So given the dire
consequences of controlling the lights, where
will I even administer security for my house?
What device will I use? Apple to the rescue?
Recently, Apple has embraced the idea of security
as competitive advantage. Lets imagine this use
case what if my TV has a Movie Mode, which
calls APIs to dim the lights, lower the blinds
and start the popcorn? Will I need an Apple TV,
Apple lights, Apple blinds and an Apple popcorn
maker? How do I ensure that my pranky eight year
old cant put my TV in movie mode when Im on a
conference call?   However I fear that we will be
a much poorer society if we only have security
for Apple productsboth in terms of diversity,
and in terms of money in our savings account. Im
sure even people at Apple might acknowledge that
Apple wont be able to produce every electronic
device in your IOT house. One of the exciting
things about IOT is that its the first time
individuals could perhaps compete with huge
companies making innovative smart devices.
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The hardest work in front of us is arriving at
consensus. How do we get big companies, little
companies, and open source enthusiasts to agree
on standards that will enable centralized
security? This is one of the reasons Gluu joined
the Open Interconnect Consortium with Intel,
Cisco and Samsung. It is also the reason we are
directly participating in the User Managed Access
Working Group, which is working on a standard
that can be used for API access management. Other
efforts are also underway, for example, the
Zigbee Alliance announced new security standards
that provide consumers with the capability to
directly control all devices in a home with one
remote control. Also the Allseen Alliance
recently announced an initiative to advance smart
lighting.   At Gluu, our mission is to leverage
open standards, and open source web access
management system software, just in case Apple
doesnt save us from Big Brother (or Apple turns
out to be big brother!) For more information on
the Gluu Server, the worlds first free open
source access management platform.   Article
resource-http//gluu.blog.com/2014/10/08/keeping-
the-lights-on-or-off/