Bringing security to the ‘Wild West’ of smart-home devices
Denys Poshyvanyk likens the state of smart-home devices today to the “Wild West, ” a chaotic situation that contributes to concerns of security and trust among users and potential customers.
“We’re talking about literally billions of devices,” he said. “There are all these different vendors. And all these different vendors have their own operating systems. They have their own development processes. They have their own certification processes.”
Adwait Nadkarni says the human element adds another layer of complexity to the situation.
“We don’t really understand how consumers automate their homes,” he said. “We don’t understand what people want to do with the devices they have. We don’t even understand what the most common smart-home devices are.”
Nadkarni and Poshyvanyk are professors in William & Mary’s Department of Computer Science. They recently received funding from the National Science Foundation to bring law and order — or at least greater security — to the Wild West of home automation.
