Data Securing and IoT Challenges

All just thanks. I'll just start off by, by talking a little bit about the council itself. It's very new.

We, we are a small industry in South Africa and one of our founders of our founder, Roger Hitler brought together a bunch of us in 2019 to say that we needed to formalize something around technology and security, being a key topic in that space as well. So the, the, the council was formed in 2019 with a couple of key goals, which I will go through in a little bit more details.

We were endorsed by our local government, and we are also part of a broader governmental organization that is looking into industry 4.0 as a, as a whole currently about around 40 members and growing very, very strongly over the last while. So the goal of the council itself is we are looking to become the thought leaders within the space, and that is cross industry that is industrial internet of things, consumer, and our whole range of, of topics and technologies.

We are trying to create a space where people learn from each other so that we, as a country can become a lot stronger in, in the technology development arena. And that's only able to be done. If we collaborate between companies, we, we look at the, the latest technologies and capabilities, and we try to make companies and our members aware of what the trends are globally around application case studies, market trends, future developments, requirements, security elements, cetera, etcetera.

And then because we also a nonprofit government organization, skill development and transfer skills is very important. And especially in Africa where we need to ensure that we have a workforce that will be able to, to work in this space. So just to start off like any other buzzword IOT and industry 4.0, have got its origin and other technologies that has been around for a long time, it's just a slightly different way of, of doing the same type of, of activities. But we have to, because of, of newer technology types, we have got a lot of learnings to, to still learn and in this space.

So the industry for 4.0 4.0 is basically a PLC skater type of history with historians and national operating centers and all of those kind of things, which tended to be very industry focused, closed loop, and very expensive. So new type technologies these days are, are starting to, to get closer into the space where you've got two way communication or command and control over wireless or other types of technologies, the, the IOT or the, the, the side of wireless technologies.

We, we, we are focusing very strongly on, has got its foundation in telemetry. And what we are adding to that is, you know, telemetry has been around for very long time and is old and, and, and, and getting very, very, getting less expensive, but to get good quality products is still is a, the higher cost to operate. So what we are adding to the, that base is an IOT, which includes machine learning, artificial intelligence. And then of course, the long range wireless networks, which, which is the core of what I'm talking about today.

So the, the, the risk that I mentioned in the previous slide is that all the, all the type technologies have had a long time to be able to understand risk, understand the, the vulnerabilities that's in these systems. And then IOT in the, in the wireless space has only been around for about 10, 15 years. So a lot of those learnings are, are still to be learned. And every day we strive to, to become a little bit better and better.

So the, what do we face from a, from a, a security point of view, the pioneers in IOT industry were very much focused on gathering of information and not so much on, on, on talking back to the device. So the devices like Lauras Fox, cetera, cetera, were, were only, only reading information from a, from a device.

And, and in most cases it was not a non-critical device, temperature, sensor, humility, those kind of things, which was not critical in the operation of any business. It was more around other types of things that was measured and monitored. But as the technology grows, we get into a space where there's a lot more bidirectional data flow, and that increases the risk exponentially because now not only are you able to, to, to read the data, you are able to, to interact with the device on the ground as well. And then over and above that being wireless, there's a couple of limitations.

So we've got very small packet sizes or data sizes, which limits the amount of security protocol that can be embedded into each one of those communications trends, the wireless side. In most cases, it is a standard spectrum. So getting technology or getting a, a, a listener in a specific spectrum is, is, is very cheap and, and, and easy to do because a lot of the, the networks is, is a centrally managed network. There's also the standardization of data string. So being able to intercept and understand the, the data that's being passed, doesn't take too much to, to, to crack.

So that is a, a key concern signal into the inter interception devices are widely available. It's very cheap. It doesn't need a lot of skill to be able to, to operate. There's currently still no clear winner, and when it comes to the standards. So there's various networks, there's similar networks, there's multiple networks on a site. There is multiple technologies on a network.

So, and the, the, the standard conversation is a key conversation for us to have where, where insecurity can become a lot more top of mind. In, in the process. We also have a lot of ADOC installations. As one of the previous speakers would say is that a company might have a very key or very strong security protocol, but they just add one small thing. And there's a, there's a very famous case in Las Vegas where a temperature sensor was put into a fish tank, and that was connected directly onto the network. And the hackers was able to hack into the, the network via the fish tank.

And, and that is the, the it's seemingly insignificant portions of points of entry into the network that IOT create exponentially when it comes to, to whole generic networking. So I think the successful installation of integration of IOT technologies into a broader spectrum has to have a holistic view. It needs to be part of the network. It needs to be focused and managed as part of the network. And it has to be secured as part of that, all. So just a couple of points on avoiding security breaches.

The there's been there is there's quite a, quite a lot of things to discuss or options that can go through. So I'm just going through a couple of these, the new, the newest part of the wireless technologies becoming very popular is a localized private network where the network is still on premise, it's incorporated into the standard architecture, and it will have a local handle, which gives you a little bit better control over, over security protocols that will, will run.

And it's physical, physically secure understand these, they still breaches, or they still opportunities with, with antennas for nearfield and, and Bluetooth, cetera, cetera, but that is localizing it, keeping it away from, from prying eyes is a, is, is a good way, or is a step in the right direction. We also look at standalone networks, which is not connected to the actual network on site.

This network would run independently, communicate independently and have some sort of independent and managed spectrum signal and spectrum management that that will will secure the, the communication trend through encryption and standard and allowable or capable security protocols that, that will work in the, in the wireless space. We also deploy very often and successfully the separation between data and control.

So we, we, the, the risks are, are high. There will be a, a, a dual function. So one thread will be data receiving, and the other thread will be data pushing down or control down onto the ground, which then gives you a separation of risk factors. And then it reduces the, the risk to, to the overall network.

And I think the globalized standard has got its has got its pros and cons, but it, once we get to the eight type of standard, there will be a higher level of security capable, and manufacturers will be able to operate and manage their networks and continue the security drive challenges in general, that we face off the topic, but IOT has not been adopted globally as, as expected. And I think security might be one of the key reasons as well.

So, so globally, we haven't seen the number of devices in deployed as what was expected. And, but I think with continued focus on, on the standardization or a standard protocol of sorts and with a, a focus on security, it, it does promise to be the next big, the next big thing, which gives us hope for the future. And then I'll just get very quickly the, the standard architecture very high level is that nodes and devices are connected right at the bottom.

That's where a device connects to a device, a node connects to a device or a communication node, a device connects to a sensor, and that is then the point of contact. We then transfer the data wisely and as securely as possible over a wireless network. And there's various ranges that can be used there, different in different countries, different in different contents. Then it gets into from there generally it'll go via GSM or a, a land network or a fiber network back into a cloud environment where the networks are, are managed.

And that's where there's, there's fairly good globalization on, on that side. Cause it's, it's more traditional type of capabilities. And that is where security becomes plays a stronger role before it goes into the platform or the user interface. And then of course, artificial intelligence, the machine learning is just the cherry on top, where the value of good quality data will come through very strongly into the, in the future.

So effectively the data that comes through once trusted and, and believed and of good quality will make artificial intelligence and machine learning outside of the fancy self-driving car space, very variable in the market. So some of the notable adoption challenges, some of these solutions are very complex. There's no standard on water, electricity meters, or any, any of the, of the solutioning components that is generally deployed.

The technology is requires education, not only from a technology point of view, but also from a adoption point of view and a customer based point of view, the because it's newer systems and newer types of things, things that's never been monitored in the past. It doesn't form part of budgetary cycles. And that means that it takes long the sales cycle through the process takes quite a while.

And then we've got the, the standard business change processes where if everybody's been running SCADA and PLCs forever trying new technologies, there's always a, there's a change process that needs to be very carefully managed. Security concerns are still high based on the, on the fact that the, the data's so small and the security capability is so small.

And the, as I said, the, the historical installation of SCADA and PLC type of technologies is always the go to when it comes to to technologies. So that's also a, a challenge to, to adoptions as a council, we are involved in a couple of very interesting initiatives, smart cities in South Africa. We have partnered with the development bank of South Africa to develop a blueprint for a scalable and repeatable IOT technologies that reduces the risk and increases in efficiencies in cities and towns and villages within, within South Africa.

And within Africa, we are quite a way down already with two sites where we are designing a multi technology based platform where multiple sources of, and multiple suppliers of data can talking to a centralized service. And that creates a very cost effective and smooth running municipality in South Africa. We also on the commission for the presidents industry 4.0 environment.

So as a country, we look at the, the macro and micro socioeconomical impacts of industry 4.0 in the country and at what's come out of those discussions and sessions is very largely focused on skills development opportunity in, in governmental operations. And the ability to lead adoption skills development by itself is, is a key concern for us. We're a key initiative and we are in involved in private and governmental educational initiatives to bridge that gap. And with that, I think, I think the future's exciting.

There's a couple concerns that we need to focus on security being one of the big ones. But if we, the future's bright and I internet of things and industry four is definitely the way to go. Thank you very much for the time.