Cyber Security
data is only stored locally on the device. Possible new use cases: Parking meters lining streets in a city, stocktaking sensors in a warehouse, and long perimeter fence surveillance cameras. STRONGER With the Low Energy version of Bluetooth 4, the outdoor and indoor range was approximately 40 and 10 meters, respectively. With Bluetooth 5, that distance has been boosted to a 200 meters line of sight – or 40 meters within a building. That means Bluetooth 5 devices could replace the more power intensive WiFi devices in the home and office, and become ubiquitous in open plan factories. And then there’s the commercial utility – beacons. Beacons, an unimpressive application of Bluetooth 4, suddenly become practical in version 5. With a limit of 31 bytes, Bluetooth 4 was only ever able to transmit a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) number, which required a mobile phone to be connected to the web to translate that UUID into an action, such as opening a website or email application. But with Bluetooth 5, over 255 bytes can be transferred directly from the Low Energy beacon to the phone, independent of an Internet connection. Payment details, GPS coordinates, department store specials, and website URLs can all be included within a single transmission, and since it’s low power, such beacons can be added into everything from parking meters and smart farming to advertising signage and warehousing. Possible new use cases: Parking meters within multilayered car parks, security on shopping trollies, SO WHAT’S THE CATCH?
wireless environment, this is a significant limitation, since the distance from the hub to Bluetooth 4 supported peripheral device, say a camera or parking meter, is the absolute limit of the connection. But with Bluetooth 5, a network mesh is possible, allowing every device to be able to transfer data from every other connected device, extending the range indefinitely. This is a game changer for Industrial IoT, and the myriad of cheap, low powered sensors that can now be added to a factory’s production line, warehouse and office. As long as one Bluetooth 5 device can connect to another Bluetooth 5 device, it is able to connect to all. All for one, and one for all, which makes for higher efficiency. And of course, this allows for IoT edge computing. Edge computing, where rudimentary processing is done by the device, rather than the server to which the data is sent, reduces the pressure on networks and associated costs with high data transfer. Surveillance cameras need only send images and video to the server once movement is detected, or certain shapes (eg. human) enter the field of view. For the 23 hours and 55 minutes of the day where there is no change, the
Since Bluetooth 5 has a longer reach, so too do malicious individuals. In many ways, Bluetooth 4’s weaknesses were also its strength in terms of innate security – limited distance and speed. Attacks utilising Bluetooth 5 can come from a much greater distance, and if the breach is successful, then data can be stolen at twice the rate. What’s more, while there is device authentication, there is still no user authentication built into the Bluetooth 5’s. That responsibility still falls on the mobile phone software and application developers. Of course, these security holes might be plugged with the release of Bluetooth 5.1 or later versions, just as 802.11 wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) evolved from Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). That being said, for now a properly secured phone using the latest version of Bluetooth and a user authentication-enabled app will suffice for most enterprise use cases. But, if Bluetooth 5 is to support the huge growth in IoT, further iterations focusing on security will be absolutely necessary. This is the world of Bluetooth 5. Only last year, Bluetooth was the awkward second cousin of the networked ecosystem, trailing behind WiFi, but in 2017 version 5 presents itself as the cooler, older brother that will undoubtedly catapult the IoT into our living rooms, boardrooms and factory floors. And it will do it Faster, Higher, and Stronger.
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