Poor IoT Readiness in Businesses

In the past two years, we have extensively discussed the topic of security, particularly in relation to IoT. Still, it is a major concern going forward and continues to be an area of interest for developers, clients and users alike.

One factor that continues to highlight the fragility and importance of security in both IoT networks and devices are the numerous recent hacks.

In light of such security breaches, an independent privacy research organisation Ponemon Institute have teamed up with Shared Assessments, a member-driven information network in third party risk management. Together, the two have recently conducted a study on businesses and their attitudes towards data security. Surveying over 600 individuals in corporate governance, they uncovered that 81% of respondents believe “a data breach caused by unsecured IoT devices is ‘likely’ to occur within the next 24 months.” At the same time, nearly all respondents with only a handful of exceptions say they fear a security event closely related to IoT.

Despite the gloomy forecast on the future of IoT security, the other major discovery of the poll is that only a third of these companies are actively monitoring for third-party risks within their networks. This is believed to be caused by organisations both misunderstanding where the burden of responsibility for maintaining IoT security resides, as well as not understanding their own capacity to ensure it.

Charlie Miller, Senior Vice President at Shared Assessments, says it’s important for businesses to start taking a more hands-on approach when it comes to IoT security: “With the increasing number of major data breaches, ransomware, and distributed denial of service attacks in the news daily, it’s critical that organisations assign accountability and ownership of IoT-related oversight across their organisation, ensure that IoT security is taken seriously, and educate management at all levels.”

Dashboard recognises security to be extremely important subject for both suppliers, their clients, and third parties (often the public), which, in the majority of instances, are the victims of security breaches. Furthermore, the wider IoT landscape and the technology inhabiting it are both heavily reliant on the assurance of security, with much of the IoT industry recognising security as one of the largest barriers to adoption.