Businesses in the dark over IoT breaches

Research indicates almost half of companies cannot tell if IoT devices have been breached

Businesses are failing to implement effective IoT security strategies and almost half have no idea if their devices have been breached, according to security company Gemalto.

Since the term IoT was coined, experts have sounded the alarm about the dangers of increasing the attack surface of IT operations. IoT devices are set to top 20 billion by 2023 and businesses are scrambling to demonstrate that their devices are secure, following research released last year that revealed consumers now expect connected devices to be adequately protected.

Gemalto says 90 percent of companies now believe IoT security is a big consideration for customers, and the number that view IoT security as an ethical responsibility has tripled (14 percent) compared to last year.

Spending on device protection marginally increased from 11 percent in 2017 to 13 percent last year, suggesting industry is responding to the shift in consumer attitudes, but questions will be asked as to whether firms are going far enough.

Public intervention

Gemalto, which surveyed 950 IT and business decision makers for the survey, says companies are urgently calling on governments to help intervene in IoT security by implementing more robust and clear guidelines.

Despite the fact that many governments have already enacted or announced the introduction of regulations, most (95 percent) businesses believe there should be uniform regulations, a finding echoed by consumers.

The volume of data that IoT devices generate is creating challenges for data privacy and secure processing. Only 59 percent of those investing in IoT security admit to encrypting all of the data their devices generate.

To help address security concerns, firms are increasingly turning to blockchain technology. Adoption of blockchain has doubled from nine percent to 19 percent in the last 12 months, with some 23 percent believing the technology is the most promising solution for securing devices – 91 percent are considering implementing blockchain strategies in the future.

“Businesses are clearly feeling the pressure of protecting the growing amount of data they collect and store,” said Jason Hart, CTO, data protection at Gemalto.

“But while it’s positive they are attempting to address that by investing in more security, such as blockchain, they need direct guidance to ensure they’re not leaving themselves exposed. In order to get this, businesses need to be putting more pressure on the government to act, as it is them that will be hit if they suffer a breach.”