The Industrial Internet Consortium
Security Is Everywhere Here at Washington University , we decided early on to use an intrusion detection system watching traffic coming from the residence halls . That way we could spot , note , and work with student computers that were “ owned ” in an effort to be better net-neighbors . One of my student technicians helped me understand that rather than build a moat to try and keep the bad guys in , it might be better to use the intrusion detection system . It worked so well that our network security office extended those intrusion detection devices to include the entire campus . That and providing extra bandwidth in the evening and weekends gave us bona-fides with our population . Having groups like the ResNet Symposium and ACUTA to bounce ideas to and from was also a big plus .
Along the same lines , IoT started affecting our campus once the laundry machines in the residence halls became Internet accessible . Primarily , this was to allow our students to use their ‘ Bear Bucks ’ cards instead of struggling for quarters in order to have clean clothes every few weeks . Soda and candy machines quickly followed . Interestingly , POS ( point-of-sale ) in the cafés and card access to the residence halls came later .
After the campus shooting at Northern Illinois University in 2008 , our administration decided that we would provide security cameras in and around the residence halls . We realized that network-based cameras and DVRs that were on the same networks as our student residence halls might not provide evidentiary-quality video at all times . You know , just when we depended on a video recording , one student might overwhelm the network , and we ’ d be stuck with little to nothing in the way of digital evidence . So we used spare fiber to create a ( mostly ) separate physical network that we would call the University Services Network ( USN ). Over time , that moved to a separate VLAN on the common physical network , with the consistent idea that we needed to segregate these devices for both security and networkability reasons . This was the same thought process that had most campuses moving their student residential networks to separate subnets or even outsourcing them .
Final Thoughts The IoT has already had an impact on campus life . For us , it broadens the landscape and creates a network of additional things we must consider as we support the faculty , staff , and students . But technology is not a stand-still discipline , and the IoT does open the door to some very cool stuff .
Former ACUTA president Matt Arthur serves Washington University in St . Louis as the director of Incident Communications and Media Services . Reach Matt at arthur @ wustl . edu .
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29 Winter 2017 ACUTA Journal
The Industrial Internet Consortium
The wave of IoT comes to our administrative networks whether we acknowledge or not . It ’ s really just a matter of perception and preparation — most of which we ’ ve already done , but just don ’ t realize it . The really interesting thing might just be how our universities participate in research and engineering with IoT . One of the associations that a few of our brethren have become involved with is the Industrial Internet Consortium ( www . iiconsortium . org ).
From its own website , “ The Industrial Internet Consortium is a global , member-supported , organization that promotes the accelerated growth of the Industrial Internet of Things by coordinating ecosystem initiatives to securely connect , control and integrate assets and systems of assets with people , processes and data using common architectures , interoperability and open standards to deliver transformational business and societal outcomes across industries and public infrastructure .”
The goals of this consortium are to :
• Drive innovation through the creation of new industry use cases and testbeds for real-world applications
• Define and develop the reference architecture and frameworks necessary for interoperability
• Influence the global development standards process for internet and industrial systems
• Facilitate open forums to share and exchange real-world ideas , practices , lessons , and insights
• Build confidence around new and innovative approaches to security
Again from their website : As the digital and physical worlds collide , organizations need to be able to more easily connect and optimize assets and operations to drive agility across all industrial sectors . The Industrial Internet Consortium was formed to help achieve this goal by identifying the requirements for open interoperability standards and defining common architectures to connect smart devices , machines , people , and processes that will help to accelerate more reliable access to big data and unlock business value . It also focuses on innovation through testbeds .
Universities are built for testbeds . Research , exploration , and creativity are the bedrock on which our institutions are founded . Should we do our best to find common ground with the IIC ? There are already a number of our member institutions who are also members of the IIC . It might be something to check out .
In the meantime , I ’ m sure there are other IoT resources out there . If you know of other groups , associations , or websites that would benefit us all , please send them to me . Maybe we can create a webpage of IoT resources . We always work best when helping each other . That ’ s the ACUTA way !
ACUTA Journal Winter 2017 29