A sprinkler that waters the lawn according to the weather, kitchens calling the grocery store when stock is low and a sheep sending signal to its farmer about its health – all this and much more are part of the “Internet of Things”. The idea behind Internet of Things (IoT) is to enable physical objects to connect and share information on the internet and with one another. Human-computer interaction used to be the main source of data available on internet, be it a voice recording, a digital image, a tap on the smart device, a social media exchange, an email, or any other form of structured or unstructured data. This is not true anymore as advent of IoT is rapidly giving power to objects to represent themselves digitally without any need of human support.

Various existing infrastructures and technologies that we use in daily life support the concept of Internet of Things (IoT) such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Near Field Communication (NFC) Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) and many other cloud services. In addition to this, there are many objects that are already embedded with sensors, microchips and other devices that enable these things to connect to with other devices and internet. This is just the beginning as many researchers are working on various projects and new technologies that will support the growth of IoT. Smart phones and other smart wearable are also big reason of the popularity and wide spread of IoT. Smart watches and other wearable have made communication a matter of “tap” only. Some of these smart devices are monitoring human activities every second and sharing with other devices

Potential applications of Internet of Things (IoT) covers almost all the areas, from every-day life of an individual to various domains of organizations and society. Smart devices calling hospital emergency department in case of emergency or accident; smart transportation systems that automatically check routes and suggesting alternate routes and diversion in case of traffic congestions or any other unexpected event that can cause delay; and monitoring land conditions, patterns, tremors and water level in rivers can help in predicting and taking preventive measures to avoid land sliding, floods and earthquakes are just a glimpse of IoT applications.

But there is a growing concern among scientists that is data security and privacy. The main idea behind IoT is publically available data which means every detail of personal life of an individual will be shared on internet. Many people are against this idea and consider it as “security and privacy breach”. Easy access to everyone’s life will also give power to bad people to harm others more easily, said Ross Anderson, a professor of security engineering at Cambridge University. Advantages of IoT have the ability to change lives and to convert the world into “Smart World” but these security concerns can’t be neglected and proper measures should be taken to avoid them.