How the Internet of Things impacts enterprise security

  • 26 January 2015
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Posted on 26 January 2015.A new study conducted by Atomik Research examined the impact that emerging security threats connected with the Internet of Things (IoT) have on enterprise security. Study respondents included 404 IT professionals and 302 executives from retail, energy and financial services organizations in the U.S. and U.K.

http://www.net-security.org/images/articles/iot.png
Key findings:
  • Employed consumers working from home have an average of 11 IoT devices on their home networks, and nearly one in four employed consumers (24 percent) have already connected at least one of these devices to their enterprise networks.
  • 63 percent of executives expect that business efficiencies and productivity will force them to adopt IoT devices despite the security risks; however, only 46 percent say the risks associated with IoT have the potential to become the most significant risk on their networks.
  • Only 8 percent of energy IT professionals are concerned about cybercriminals attacking industrial controllers, but 88 percent are not confident in the secure configuration of industrial controllers.
  • Less than one in four IT professionals are confident in the secure configuration of common IoT devices that are already on enterprise networks: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones (21 percent), sensors for physical security (20 percent), smart controllers for lights and HVAC (16 percent), point-of-sale devices (18 percent) and industrial controllers (12 percent).
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The following article is a update:
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Gartner: Makers of things for Internet of things undervalue security.

By Tim Greene
 

Vendors making devices for the Internet of Things are putting user friendliness and time to market ahead of security, Gartner says.

 
As the Internet of things develops, most vendors that are making these things don't make security their top priority, allowing business considerations to take precedent, according to a Gartner expert.
"Some of the leading vendors that are developing products are making some effort to address security concerns, but Gartner believes the majority aren't at this stage -- convenience, user friendliness, time-to-market all win out over security at this point," says Earl Perkins, a research vice president at Gartner.
Makers of components for these devices often do address security as evidenced by ARM buying up software security firm Offspark this week so it can put TLS encryption right inside ARM's mbed operating system.
"Gartner views this acquisition as indicative of a general trend in the industry by companies previously concerned about chipsets and firmware now recognizing that software-defined security will play an increased role in their future sales," he says.
 
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