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The Internet of Things: Impact on Public Safety Communications

This is your primer on the IoT.

By now you should have at least heard of the Internet of Things (IoT). If you are beginning to wonder how this "new thing" is going to impact you, this CISA publication, The Internet of Things: Impact on Public Safety Communications

Bill Schrier shared the link above. I strongly recommend you read up on it and then closely follow what is going on with 5G. It is 5G that will maximize the mobility of IoT devices, e.g. driverless cars to function safely. There is a quote that caught my attention, "...the increased availability of unstructured, uncoordinated information requires that public safety organizations work with LoT device vendors to counteract the potential organizational liabilities posed by managing this massive information overload."  Translated--Petabites of information is going to be available and you are going to have to sort it all out. To do an accident investigation, plug your computer (maybe do this wirelessly) into the two cars in a collision and find out what happened.

Everyone will need an IT degree by the time we are done adapting to this brave new future.  Note, I still have not hooked up our home oven to the Internet, but it is ready to connect!

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
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