A botnet is a web of interconnected machines or devices that have been hijacked for unintended purposes. Through malicious software, hackers may use this stolen processing power by combining these so-called zombie devices into larger networks, and use them to distribute spam email or overload other networks/servers by sending a huge number of requests from all the zombies at once.
Machines may be part of a botnet even if you’re still using them, but they’ll tend to get slower as much of their processing power is used for other purposes. We’ve found plenty of botnets infecting the IoT already, as IoT devices are among the easiest to hijack.
A DoS (Denial-of-Service) attack is a common weapon for hackers who want to disable a system. This may be done by sending infinitely self-replicating programs, until the processor can’t deal with the workload any longer.
A DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack is another version of this. Here, as described above, the offender will use a botnet to send so much data that the victim’s bandwidth is overloaded, and consequently makes the website or service crash. The common denominator is forcing a system to perform such demanding tasks that it eventually breaks down.
A Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWA or LPWAN) is a type of wireless communications network that’s especially fit for the IoT. It has a wider range, but a slower speed than, say, 4G for mobile devices. The communications modules used for LPWA are cheaper and less power intensive than the alternatives – which makes it ideal for IoT purposes. There are several competing standards, such as NB-IoT and LoRa.
Smart cities is the expression used to denote a city where IoT is thoroughly integrated with everything from traffic to schools to hospitals. By using this technology, we make the city more effective through automation, and provide the inhabitants with better and more sustainable solutions.
A VPN is a Virtual Private Network, and is a closed, encrypted tunnel on the internet. To gain access, you need to be authorized. A VPN is a much safer type of network than the open web, which makes it perfect for the IoT.
All the definitions above are lifted from our IoT dictionary, which you may download for free by clicking the button below.