Zigbee is a wireless protocol for applications not requiring lots of bandwidth, e.g. home automation, lighting or sensor networks. The idea is to create so called Personal Area Networks. The specification is standardized as IEEE 802.15.4.
Dresden Electronic offers the Rasbee (Picture to the left) to get started with low budget Raspberry Pi Hardware.
AWS announced the winners of their IoT contest.
Winners of @awscloud #IoT contest announced! Amazing projects, innovation, technical acumen: https://t.co/qZaiJFsVn5 pic.twitter.com/tzmvu5rU0v
— Hackster.io (@Hacksterio) February 11, 2016
So, this is the future of security with smart devices.
Samsung has confirmed that its “smart TV” sets are listening to customers’ every word, and the company is warning customers not to speak about personal information while near the TV sets. The company revealed that the voice activation feature on its smart TVs will capture all nearby conversations. The TV sets can share the information, including sensitive data, with Samsung as well as third-party services. The news comes after Shane Harris at The Daily Beast pointed out a troubling line in Samsung’s privacy policy: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.” Samsung has now issued a new statement clarifying how the voice activation feature works. “If a consumer consents and uses the voice recognition feature, voice data is provided to a third party during a requested voice command search,” Samsung said in a statement. “At that time, the voice data is sent to a server, which searches for the requested content then returns the desired content to the TV.” The company added that it does not retain or sell the voice data, but it didn’t name the third party that translates users’ speech. Update, Feb. 10: Samsung has updated its policy and named the third party in question, Nuance Communications, Inc. Meghan DeMaria
via: Samsung warns customers not to discuss personal information in front of smart TVs
IFTTT has established itself as the central decision making instance from your smart phone between all your data sources and gadgets. So enabling your Smart Home through IFTTT is only a short throught away. CNET has a few ideas for that matter.
Getting connected devices to work together isn’t always as easy as it should be. IFTTT can help your smart home function more smoothly by acting as a translator between the many languages of smart home devices.
via: CNET
Internet of Things is really a thing recently. Another company, Seebo based in Tel Aviv, was able to secure $8.5m funding to enable more connected devices.
Seebo, the Tel Aviv, Israel-founded startup that offers an Internet of Things (IoT) end-to-end platform to help companies launch smart products faster, has closed $8.5 million in Series A funding.…
Quelle: TechCrunch
Infographic for the current Internet of Things market.
So far, the IIoT wave transforming asset-heavy industries has been led by the old guard of tech giants such as GE, IBM, and Cisco.
via: The 56 Startups Transforming Heavy Industry And Making It More Efficient
MIT Technology Review on insuring connected devices.
Forrester, well known for their predictions on the impact of technology, took a look at the state of Internet of Things Security. To no surprise they came to the conclusion the technology still has to come a long way.
Forrester’s take on the Internet of things isn’t that shocking–the industry has developed with little thought about security–but the time frames are jarring nonetheless.
Quelle: ZDNet
Security on the Internet of things has often been said to be bad. Apparently Shodan runs a search engine for sleeping kids. Through kids monitor cams available to watch. Publicly on the internet. Enough proof the Internet of Things really needs security. 
Shodan search engine is only the latest reminder of why we need to fix IoT security.
Quelle: Internet of Things security is so bad, there’s a search engine for sleeping kids | Ars Technica
Students will leave the course with an understanding of the foundational principals, architectures, applications, security and protocols that underpin the IoT, an MIT dean says.
IoT gains traction, also in education.
via: MIT offers Internet of Things training for professionals