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TechKnowSurge Catalog Videos What's the Internet of Things? (IoT)
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What's the Internet of Things? (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to everyday devices and industrial equipment that have gained network connectivity, expanding the internet beyond traditional computers. This coverage spans both home automation and large-scale industrial applications, including SCADA systems used to monitor and control physical infrastructure.

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About this video

The Internet of Things is the broad term for physical devices that connect to the internet despite not having been traditionally networked. This distinguishes IoT from conventional computing equipment — the category is defined specifically by appliances, tools, and infrastructure that gained connectivity as an added capability rather than as a core design purpose. Common consumer examples include smart thermostats, internet-connected door locks, video doorbells, smart outlets, voice-assistant-enabled appliances, and streaming devices, all of which can be monitored and controlled remotely through a smartphone or a unified home network. The defining characteristic is that these objects now communicate over the internet in ways that expand their functionality beyond their original mechanical or analog purpose. Industrial applications of IoT are equally significant and, in many cases, predate the consumer smart-home market. Factory automation, building access control, and HVAC management all rely on networked devices that feed real-time data into centralized systems. SCADA — Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition — is one of the most established examples, using distributed sensors to continuously collect operational data and trigger automated control responses across industrial equipment and infrastructure. The convergence of consumer and industrial IoT highlights both the broad utility of connecting physical devices to the internet and the security considerations that come with expanding network access to systems that were once entirely isolated.

What you'll learn

What's covered

Internet of Things (IoT)

Aligned to

CompTIA Network+
1.8 Summarize evolving use cases for modern network environments.
CompTIA SecurityX
2.8 Given a set of requirements, secure specialized and legacy systems.
CompTIA A+ Core 2
2.7 Explain common methods for securing mobile and embedded/specialized devices.
Cisco CCST Cybersecurity
2.3 Describe network infrastructure and technologies.

Key terms

Internet of Things
IoT
A network of physical devices embedded with sensors and software that connect and exchange data over the internet.
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
SCADA
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition is a system architecture used in critical infrastructure to collect sensor data and issue real-time control commands; SCADA security failures can result in physical damage to industrial equipment and facilities.
Industrial Control System
ICS
Industrial Control System is a broad category of control systems used in industrial production and critical infrastructure, including SCADA systems and PLCs; ICS security focuses on protecting physical processes from cyber threats with minimal downtime tolerance.
Home Automation
The use of IoT devices to remotely monitor and control household systems and appliances over a network.

Transcript

So what do my refrigerator, my microwave, and my laptop all have in common? They all connect to the internet. This is what we call the internet of things: my everyday things that didn't used to connect to the internet now connect to the internet.

It's all of our devices around our home that typically haven't been connected to the internet. Things like our washers and dryers, our refrigerators, our light bulbs, and different switches have all been not interconnected with the network. Now that we are connecting these to add functionality to all of these devices, we're calling this the internet of things. We have things, and we're connecting them to the internet.

A typical computer has been connected for a long time, and we now buy computers because of connectivity for a large part. Those don't really count necessarily for the internet of things. We're talking about appliances and things that haven't traditionally been networked and connected to the internet that now are. That is the internet of things.

Industrial applications

Home automation is not the only application for connecting things to the internet, though. We have a lot of industrial application as well. Perhaps there's even a greater application there, and it has been going on for longer than our home application. Things like factory floors that have been automated, the equipment on there. So we've got industrial control systems that we're automating using technology, or access to different areas of a building, so we've got access control, physical access control. We've also got heating and air conditioning, HVAC systems, that are connected into the internet, so we can remotely connect into them and be able to control those systems and really automate all of those systems.

One example of that is our SCADA, or supervisory control and data acquisition. The idea behind this is that there are sensors acquiring data and then making decisions to control that. We see that on a lot of equipment now, that we're using SCADA, and we have actually used this for a long time.

Examples of the internet of things

So what are some examples of the internet of things? I have my laptop here, and that's not actually an example of an internet of things, because it's a traditional computer and so we would typically think that that's connected to the internet.

My refrigerator would be an example, and I'm not going to haul it up here as an example, but I do have a microwave here that actually does interconnect with my network and can connect to the internet. It's Alexa enabled, so it will actually respond to me and will have certain features that Alexa will give me.

What else is an internet of things? Here I have an outlet that I can plug into the wall and control with my laptop or with my phone. That's been really handy, and I've got lots of these throughout the house.

Another thing is my garage door. I can link my garage door to the whole system so I can open and close it and monitor what's happening, if it's open or closed, which is really handy when I drive away and think, "Oh, did I close the garage door?" Then I can get on my phone and find out if I did or not.

Here's a lock to the front door. This is a deadbolt lock to the front door, so I can lock the front door, and I have that connected to my network.

I also have a Ring doorbell, which has a camera on it, and when you click on this it will ring. And then I actually have a little speaker for it, so I can plug this anywhere in the home.

I have my TVs. These two TVs back here are all connected to my network, so that's an example of it. I also have a couple of these Fire Sticks, and I've got a Chrome streaming device. So I've got a bunch of these devices that connect to my TVs, and I have about seven TVs in my home that are all interconnected with my network.

And then I have a video camera, so I have monitoring around my house and I can monitor things and make sure that everything's okay.

I also have a bunch of these Echo Dots. I have 10 of these throughout my home, so these are all speakers throughout my home, and I can tell Alexa to play some music and she'll play music throughout the house.

And then I also have my thermostat here, so I can actually control the temperature of my home using my ecobee thermostat.

So these would all be examples of the internet of things.

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