Mohit Kumar Gulati, Metacube Software Private Limited,
Urvashi Gulati
We are the fortunate ones to be a spectator to blending of the digital world with the physical world. However, what is visible to the naked eye is just the tip of the iceberg. We are still getting used to the behemoth, that the ever evolving IOT field is going to become in time to come. The presentation is an honest attempt to shed some light on the tremendous potential that testing carries in IOT arena. It reflects on golden opportunities as well as steep challenges rearing their ugly head out of nowhere.
No sector feels aloof, be it healthcare, telecommunications, space, agriculture, textiles, factories, robotics, automotive etc. You name it and you have it. It’s a revolution round the corner.
Novel implementations are gathering steam at breakneck speed. Predictive maintenance shall be a boon to the economy giving excellent ROI. Telematics software to analyse driving habits and giving feedback to insurance companies can help sober the erring parties and save precious lives. The Tesla automobile is a big example of the Internet of Things and potential benefits and problems of this idea. OTA updates for Tesla cars is revolutionary concept..
There lies the scope for standards being drawn for IOT frameworks, traversing the blurred lines of various heterogeneous incompatible standards and bringing them under one roof into our testing scope, mitigating chances of crimes/accidents due to loopholes in technology and the list goes on. The connected devices communicating in the cloud harnessing the abundant computing power and unlimited storage of the cloud calls for standardization of communications. Hackers are seeing their chances as bright with massive implementations on the anvil, like the envisioned smart cities with a plethora of interconnected objects. New innovations in IOT are becoming norm of the day. Bugs in these systems could have serious repercussions like people losing on their privacy. Consumer trust is going to play a major role for market acceptance. For instance, IOT cameras of a company recently got hacked. I can place a bet that it is a major blunder on part of the company and calls for a checkmate. In today’s world, nobody can play with people’s privacy and go scot free. On similar lines, a woman in US got crushed by a driverless car. It’s easy to break trust but hard to get it back when lives are at stake. Keen Security Labs presented details of how it had remotely hacked a Tesla Model S. By exploiting a string of vulnerabilities. That gives goosebumps. Murdering someone doesn’t take a gun anymore. When Things™ start processing financial data, attacks will become commonplace. The list is long and unending and some serious work lies ahead which will challenge us testers to the core.
The key points that the audience can take away from this presentation are;
1. Heightened awareness about IOT loopholes and need for paradigm shift/evolution of testing. Stakes have increased and so have risks
2. Interoperability (linked devices) and probable data leakage situations and suggested plugs
3. Approach towards End to End testing and gauging the optimal testing efforts required
4. Functional testing challenges
5. Data analytics challenges
Mohit Kumar Gulati, Urvashi Gulati, 2018 Technical Presentation, Abstract
