IoT news of the week for June 19, 2020

Ripple20 is a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad set of vulnerabilities: Earlier this week, Israeli security firm JSOF discovered 19 vulnerabilities in software created in the late 90s by a company called Treck. The vulnerabilities vary, but some are very bad, allowing someone to remotely access and control a connected device. Because Treck made networking software for embedded systems, there are thousands of IoT devices for the home, enterprise, and medical world that are vulnerable. Treck has now provided a patch and contacted those it knows have used the software, but it can’t find everyone. The revelation of the vulnerabilities represents the best argument for a software bill of materials to become part of the documentation for every device out there, something many security researchers have called for. Such a bill of materials would let users know exactly what software is part of their device; they could also use it to check if their devices are running software with known vulnerabilities when those vulnerabilities become public. Because we all know that hackers and security firms will keep finding new vulnerabilities. (CISO Mag)

More top 10 IoT startups: I feel like CRN might run these lists twice a year, but I always click on the slideshow (ugh) to see which new companies make the list. This time I was excited to see five companies that were new to me. The list includes cybersecurity companies (Ordr, Claroty), a satellite company in Myriota, data processing companies such as Circonus, and asset tracking from Roambee.  (CRN)

Companies embrace wearables, cameras, and AR as social distancing tools: Amazon released its social distancing system for warehouse workers this week; essentially a camera tracks workers who stray too close to one another and turns a green circle around each person red on a nearby video screen. The system is designed to be portable and is presumably meant to be placed in areas where people can monitor the screen, such as a line for getting into the building or a conference room. For areas where employees are trying to complete a task, however, Amazon should take a page from other industries and equip workers with a wearable that offers haptic feedback when someone gets too close. These options are now a dime a dozen as every company tries to dig into the goldmine of workplace safety in a COVID-19 era. (The Verge)

Speaking of safety, Foghorn gets involved with new products, too: Foghorn, a startup that pulls in machine data and performs analytics on that data onsite, has released three new pre-packaged hardware and software products aimed at helping keep workers safe. One is for social distancing and temperature monitoring; another is designed to ensure people are wearing masks, hard hats, and other safety gear; and a third looks for fall and spill hazards on the plant floor. Like I said last week, the rush to deploy worker safety packages in the wake of COVID-19 is going to lead to a gaggle of disparate systems, much as we saw happen with enterprise software in the 90s. I’m not thrilled. (Smart Industry)

Qualcomm’s new robotics platform is pretty awesome for robotics: I have to hand it to the folks at Qualcomm. This is a business that was built on a somewhat controversial modem technology for cell phones and was parlayed into a dominant chip provider across mobile computing, radios, and now, robotics. The internet of things has been good to the San Diego company, even as it was forced it to adjust to a much larger potential customer base and figure out many more industry verticals. This week, the company unveiled the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Platform, which combines a 4G/5G radio, AI accelerators, an image processor, and lower-powered computing in one module. The goal is to get the module into drones, robots, and perhaps even cameras to make computer vision more ubiquitous in mobile devices. Also this week, Intel released an updated version of its robotic vision sensor with the ability to see farther and more accurately. Chip companies work on these platforms for a long time, but there’s no doubt that the need to enforce social distancing because of COVID-19 is prompting companies to rapidly turn these platforms into functioning products. (Qualcomm)

Honeywell and SAP are bringing the IT and OT together for smart buildings: Last week, Honeywell signed a deal with SAP to combine forces between SAP’s enterprise software tools and the Honeywell Forge operational tech software, specifically for fire and safety systems in buildings. SAP and Honeywell want to tie the data from physical systems in buildings to enterprise systems to help manage the health and safety of workers (it’s a theme) and also track maintenance needs in enterprise software systems. Honeywell has had a long relationship with SAP, one that stretches back almost a decade to when they first created integrations between their respective software platforms, but this partnership looks to be much deeper and is tied to the current zeitgeist around worker safety in response to the pandemic. (Barron’s)

Let’s talk about a new industrial wireless protocol: Canadian company Behr Technologies has signed several new customers in the last few weeks for its industrial wireless tech, called MIOTY. I wrote about Behr almost two years ago, and focused on the ability of its wireless standard to scale across hundreds of thousands of nodes. That’s a tough trick to master, especially in industrial environments. (Other companies such as Wirepas also have similar wireless tech). I questioned the need for yet another wireless standard in the cluttered industrial space, but I figured we’d wait and see if the company landed customers. It has. The QuadReal Property Group will deploy the tech, and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) have invested $3 million. Canadian ($2.2 million USD) to help Behr Technologies build a demonstration lab. (Behr Technologies)

Microsoft acquires a startup building industry-specific “data blueprints:” Microsoft has purchased ADRM Software, a company that helps executives map the data that’s important to their business operations. In the world of digital transformation, when the goal is to somehow track and catalog every aspect of the business in order to have a computer help deliver insights and manage complex processes, the ability to know what data you have is essential. But you also have to translate that knowledge into something that software can understand. That’s what ADRM helps companies do, and the focus on digital transformation is why Microsoft decided it needed the capability. Microsoft is smart. It’s paying attention to both the technology and the process. And as anyone can tell you, it’s the process that’s really tough. (Microsoft)

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