FEBRUARY 2018CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM 19smartphones in people's pockets. It was doing this using software called Snoopy and was leveraging any of the phones with WiFi turned on. The drone captured an abundance of content including the websites that people visited, credit card information entered or saved on different sites, location data, usernames and passwords. For every advantage that a new innovation has, the bad guys will exploit it in their favor too. That's life.In the years ahead we will deploy billions of devices that will connect to the Internet--mostly wirelessly. In our increasingly connected smart homes we already do it with items such as our thermostats, entertainment, and home security systems. Our cities are becoming smarter with the deployment of millions (and soon billions) of sensors for everything from traffic management to air quality measurement. This Internet-of-Things (IoT) has remarkable advantages and will transform our lives, homes, organizations, and cities. But they will be ripe for exploitation. And potentially by drones. Research teams from Israel and Canada demonstrated how a drone could exploit a software vulnerability in wirelessly connected light-bulbs and turn them on and off at a distance. Imagine for a moment a drone attack that turns off city lights in neighborhoods or citywide, or worse flickers them eliciting mass neurological responses. And Here We AreAlmost unknown in the consumer space until the end of the 1990's, drones have emerged as a serious industry in the first two decades of the new century. Fortune magazine estimates that from 2015-2025, the drone industry will have an economic impact of more than $82 billion and will create over 100,000 high-paying jobs. What's responsible for the explosion in drone purchasing and use? For one, the technology has dropped in cost and comes in many shapes and sizes. Drone options range from just a few dollars to thousands of dollars depending on use and interest. Finally, they have incredible diversity of use including those I've explored in this article, but many more including capturing live events, delivery mechanisms (check out Matternet), hobbyists, making personal videos, professional movie-making and journalism. Soon, drones will carry people, there are many more uses.Regulation is finally catching up and in many countries drone rules are on the books. Some communities are fighting against drones as a noise nuisance, as a danger to humans, and as an expansion of privacy intrusion. Sure, there's plenty of contention between enthusiasts and legislators and I'd bet that will continue for a long time. Make sure you know the rules and if drones interest you, consider becoming engaged in the debate.Of course, as you'd expect, in response to the threats posed by drones used for nefarious reasons, a whole new defense industry is emerging that includes hardware and software solutions; and risk management services. Dedrone provides a good example of these types of emergent enterprises. New innovation will be required as the threats continue to speed ahead of the solutions.For many of us, drones have been a side-show; something interesting but not necessarily high on our radar. Those days are over. Drones must be considered in your organizational strategy, whether as a tool to optimize or improve a function of your business, or to understand and mitigate the risks they will pose in the years ahead. For every advantage that a new innovation has, the bad guys will exploit it in their favor too. That's lifeDr. Jonathan Reichental
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