The “Internet of Things”, or in short the IoT refers to a vast network of objects which are interlinked and connected to each other via technology. Such objects are more commonly known as smart objects. This is basically the inter-networking of physical devices and other objects, embedded with electronics and software etc. 

The selected research paper which is under discussion “Threat Implications of the Internet of Things” talks about mainly the fact that there are currently more objects connected to the Internet than there are people in the world and the various possibilities that are out there due to this fact including threat opportunities. The paper talks about the increase in Internet-connected systems and the accompanying, non-linear increase in Internet attack surface can be represented by several tiers of increased surface complexity.

According to the analytical research of this paper, the statistics presented are such that in the past decade (in reference from the year of the paper being written in i.e. 2013), the number of devices being used with minimal human interaction has increased a lot. These devices are directly connected to the web and use and produce internet information on their own. As stated in the selected research paper, the analysis shows that in the year 2010 about 12.5 billion such devices connected to the internet which increased from 500 million in 2013, so from this rate it was estimated in the research paper that there will be 50 billion such devices by the year 2020.

A lot of the analytical predictions in this research paper were presented for the year 2020. Based on the statistics presented in the paper under discussion, the estimation projected for the year 0f 2020, was that in a world population of 7.6 billion, and each person matched up with 6 connected devices, over 130 sensors, and innumerable embedded information objects.

The paper suggested that we think of the “Internet of Things” in terms of environments rather than objects or sensors.

The conclusion drawn from the selected research paper based on analytical results and facts from the year it was written and presented in (i.e. 2013) can be put in simple terms by stating that with the passage of time and development in technological advancements the number of devices and “smart objects” which are connected to the internet on their own is increasing greatly and at a rate which projects a huge risk of internet security and minimal human interaction in the years to come as of less than a decade. Changes to the operating landscape affected by the “Internet of Things” will necessarily result in changes to the nature of cyber-attacks. The “Internet of Things” is also susceptible to certain privacy concerns as there is no supervision or human interaction and there are limitless information sources being accessed by smart objects and a vastly increasing amount of objects connecting to the network.

The results and analysis discussed in the research paper that has been discussed are accurate based on the time it was written in. After the year 2013, the development in technology and smart objects increased drastically at a rate greater than the predictions that had been projected and information security threats starting rising faster and faster as internet security rapidly became a greater issue due to the fact that smart objects were not only being directly connected to the internet but had also begun managing and operating information directly from the internet.

A year after the above mentioned paper was published; another research paper came out in 2014, “Internet of Things for Smart Cities” (source IEEE Xplore) which stated that the Internet of Things (IoT) shall be able to incorporate transparently and seamlessly a large number of different and heterogeneous end systems, while providing open access to selected subsets of data. The research report portrays that the deployment of an urban IoT, i.e., a communication infrastructure that provides unified, simple, and economical access to a plethora of public services. The paper interestingly states that In this complex scenario, the application of the IoT paradigm to an urban context is of particular interest, as it responds to the strong push of many national governments to adopt ICT solutions in the management of public affairs, thus realizing the so-called Smart City concept.

The paper talks about how the Internet of Things can come together in protocol and architecture to form a high end urban connectivity in the form of smart cities and the benefits of IoT are shared in a certain way. The reason for throwing light on this particular paper and its analysis is that it proves that vast high end connectivity of smart objects to the great extent of forming smart cities and provides statistics of connectivity and advancement in the area of discussion which further proves the point of the fast growth of the Internet of Things and information being accessed and transferred on a higher level by certain self-run devices. This leads to obvious security and privacy issues and threatens sensitive information which may be accessed by multiple devices and objects using tracking devices and sensors.

Another paper had been published later on during the same year i.e. 2014; “Threat-Based Security Analysis for the Internet of Things” (source IEEE Xplore). The paper talked about how the IoT has allowed technology to become a milestone in the development of smart homes and smart cities. This paper presented revised facts and analysis towards the issue and clearly stated that we are still lacking a thorough analysis of the security and privacy properties that are required for a system where the constituent devices vary in their capabilities.

A year later in 2015, another IEEE Xplore research paper was published under the topic “The Internet of Things for Health Care: A Comprehensive Survey”. This paper surveys advances in IoT-based health care technologies and reviews the state-of-the-art network architectures/platforms, applications, and industrial trends in IoT-based health care solutions. In addition, this paper analyzes distinct IoT security and privacy features, including security requirements, threat models, and attack taxonomies from the health care perspective. 

So the paper effectively displays how with the passage of time and further development and advancement in technologies, the “Internet of Things” got introduced to the health care department and started to work wonders in the world of medicine, but this obviously meant further exposure of information and detail transfer via smart objects and devices so in order to ensure internet security and information privacy and to counter the susceptible threats in the health care department necessary steps had to be taken and hence threat models and attack taxonomies were designed to cope with the matter at hand.

One year after the above mentioned article was added to IEEE Xplore (in 2016), a feature article was released on the trusted site of information age, and the title of the article is “4 unexpected implications arising from the Internet of Things”. The article while talks about how certain aspects of the Internet of things which were considered rather impractical in the past few years are now increasingly becoming more and more practical and how with the passage of time the threats imposed by the IoT are now being tackled and controlled to certain extents and hence increasing its productivity rate. The article indigenously states that the nature of IoT solutions, how they are deployed, and the types of data they generate and consume are giving rise to new security and privacy implications that organizations must begin to address.

According to the author of the article under discussion, the analysis of research conducted on the area of discussion had projected an altogether new rate of IoT development for the year 2020 by stating that more than half of major new business processes and systems will incorporate some element of the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020.

As the rate of productivity of  the IoT has rapidly increased so has its influence in almost every field of life, every industry is now using the Internet of Things and the connectivity rate has dramatically increased to an unprecedented amount. Based on the rate of increase and the greater use of the IoT and its impact the article brings for statistical analysis in the form of facts predicting the connectivity growth of the IoT and its implications. 

• The article states that through the year of 2018, 75% of IoT projects will take up to twice as long as planned. 
• By 2020, a black market exceeding $5 billion will exist to sell fake sensor and video data for enabling criminal activity and protecting personal privacy
• By 2020, addressing compromises in IoT security will have increased security costs to 20% of annual security budgets, from less than 1% in 2015
• The research VP of the article source (Gartner) stated that “Major cyber security vendors and service providers are already delivering roadmaps and architecture of IoT security, in anticipation of market opportunity”

The idea of technology taking over mankind becomes a possibility of the real world rather than an idea pitched for science fiction. In short, the use of the Internet of Things is rapidly increasing in almost every field of life and the connectivity of smart objects and devices is allowing the transfer of sensitive data more and more easy and available which is a major threat, it brings a major control over information and data accessibility in the hands of cyber operated and connected devices which increases the rate of internet threats and requires increases methods of security to prevent harm which will in the near future cost more and create various opportunities, good and bad.

The impact and implications of the Internet of Things is increasingly becoming fundamental as are the issues which are arising with it, mainly security and privacy issues. Such issues have primary importance in the cyber world of the web. Tackling these problems and coming up with security mechanisms and methods in order to approach a viable solution to the problem at hand means we would first have to understand and properly comprehend the integrity of the threats and issues which are implied by the Internet of Things. The statistics are here to prove that with growing advancement and more and more new inventions in the high tech world brings more and more smart objects and devices into our lives and hence the Internet of Things is constantly growing bringing more connectivity on board and more devices being directly linked to the internet and as much as they are bringing us ease and convenience in our everyday lives they are also causing data security threats which have to be countered by effective means. So now, with carefully calculated prediction rates of the increase in the IoT and the implied threats, we are starting to understand the problem and applying methods to reduce it like passcodes and tests for transfer of sensitive data that require human interaction to ensure safety from the cyber world that we have created.

So, in the initial research paper being discussed many predictions were made and facts were presented which according to that time were sufficient and to a certain extent correct and meaningful, but later on in the light of the other research papers discussed and the latest article mentioned above, the increase in use and connectivity of the IoT and its implications has been unpredictable and the statistics have changed based on current circumstances proving that although the Internet of Things has proven to be efficient and useful in various fields the threats cannot be disregarded and are being dealt with simultaneously with an increasing cost. The newly predicted rates and implication factors are yet to be verified.