IoT news of the week for July 10, 2020

Protect your ports! Honeywell finds USB malware is on the rise: According to a report from Honeywell analyzing the threats appearing on USB devices, such devices are hosting more trojans, worms, and other actively malicious malware than they were a year ago. Not only is the software on these USB drives more malicious, but hackers are also designing more software specifically for USB attacks. The report found that, of the sample of threats it analyzed, 19% specifically used USB for infection or propagation. In the company’s initial USB threat report, only 9% of threats were specifically crafted to leverage USB. USB attacks are common in industrial settings, where networks are air-gapped and locked down. Think of USB attacks on OT networks like you would the phishing attacks on IT networks. Both rely on employees making a mistake, and both can wreak havoc. (Honeywell)

Electric Imp sold to Twilio: IoT platform company Electric Imp has sold to Twilio, a deal that was consummated much earlier this year, but announced this week. Twilio, which provides connectivity for companies that want to harness the SMS network, has broadened its services to provide connectivity modules for the IoT. This falls in line with Twilio’s core competency of bringing connectivity to developers. It used to do this for developers building apps and websites; now it wants to provide connectivity for developers building hardware. The deal brings to Twilio Electric Imp’s connected Wi-Fi and cellular modules as well as its cloud assets. Electric Imp has always impressed me with its focus on security, not just at the point of sale, but over a long period of time. Huge Fiennes, the founder of Electric Imp, designed a connected product that truly meets the needs of any device that will need to function in the real world for years, without requiring a lot of hands-on effort and expense to keep the device secure and functioning. I think the company was a little too early, but I’m glad to see its tech live on and continue to find its way into real-world products. (TechCrunch)

Get ready for 5G’s latest release: Last week, 3GPP, the standards-setting organization for 5G technology, approved Release 16 of the cellular radio spec, which advances 5G beyond mobile broadband and paves the way for factory and enterprise deployments. The release standardizes shared and unlicensed spectrum, which will likely be used in private networks operated by factories or enterprise campuses. It also focuses on super-low latency and five-nines reliability, which means wireless communications could actually make sense for production networks inside factories. There’s more in this article, and I’ll have a podcast on the topic soon. (Fierce Wireless)

Liquid Wire gets funding for cool wearable components: Liquid Wire, an Oregon-based startup making flexible wires that can be used to build electronics into wearable devices, has raised $10 million led by Deerfield Management Company. Liquid Wire’s technology is designed for the medical sensing world, where doctors are seeking stretchable fabrics and electronics that can be worn comfortably on the body. Such devices can help with remote patient monitoring, and could even be used to create a new class of sensing devices worn for long periods of time on the skin. (HrNxt)

Enlighted offers a new sensor for tracking occupancy after COVID-19: The race to provide occupancy and employee distance data in a post-pandemic world continues. Enlighted, a company that has its roots in deploying lighting fixtures packed with sensors, has released its first surface sensor that facilities managers can place anywhere they have power. The sensor provides a variety of data such as occupancy detection, temperature, and ambient lighting levels. It can also communicate with other IoT devices via Bluetooth. As far as workplace surveillance goes, it’s getting easier than ever. (Enlighted)

Siemens and Salesforce partner up for building management: This happened two weeks ago, but I missed it because I was focused on moving houses. But it’s worth revisiting because it’s the type of IT-OT partnership I tend to go on about. Siemens (which owns Enlighted) has teamed up with Salesforce to create a variety of touch-free office tech and contact tracing services for building owners and companies taking space in commercial buildings. The various OT technologies will be accessible via Salesforce’s new Work.com service, which will let employees and bosses see where people are in a building, reserve desks and conference rooms, control building access, and also help track people for contact tracing. (Silicon Angle)

Wink’s on-again-off-again subscription is back on: Smart home hub maker Wink plans to start charging for use of most of its features starting July 27, according to the company’s blog. The platform raised the ire of its users back in May after telling them they needed to pay a monthly fee of $4.99 or lose functionality. It gave users a week, then another week, and then postponed the idea — until now. The latest iteration in the Wink business model saga is that users who pay a monthly fee of $4.99 a month get access to routines, third-party integrations, and more. Users who don’t pay essentially get a Z-Wave or Zigbee remote control that’s accessible via the Wink app, but can’t add new devices or update the firmware. Basically, this is a way of giving users a longer period of notice that their hubs will gradually degrade as security threats and the need to adjust a home’s setup render them obsolete. (Wink)

This is for the architecture nerds out there: Most of y’all probably aren’t focused on how your IoT devices and services are built, but for those who do care, this article provides a really nice comparison between microservices (think containers) and monolithic applications. It discusses the trade-offs of each, although I think for folks building IoT applications the only option is microservices, simply because you want to avoid building silos for your data and applications. But even if you’re ride or die for microservices, having a deeper understanding of their benefits and flaws will only help you. (The New Stack)

Assa Abloy joins the Zigbee Alliance board: Lockmaker Assa Abloy has joined the Zigbee Alliance board of directors, in what I’m interpreting as a sign that the momentum behind Project CHIP is continuing. Assa Abloy, which owns the August Life and Yale brands of locks, has been working within the Alliance on the Connected Home over IP working group, and likely wants more of a say in steering the group’s efforts. (Zigbee Alliance)

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