{"id":36120,"date":"2019-09-05T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T16:00:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-07-03T14:07:18","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T21:07:18","slug":"solve-the-iot-security-paradox-to-unleash-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/manufacturing-and-mobility\/2019\/09\/05\/solve-the-iot-security-paradox-to-unleash-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Solve the IoT security paradox to unleash innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This blog is the second in a series highlighting our newest research, <\/em>IoT Signals<\/em><\/a>. Each week will feature a new top-of-mind topic to provide insights into the current state of IoT adoption across industries, how business leaders can develop their own IoT strategies, and why companies should use IoT to improve service to partners and customers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Business and technology leaders often cite security as their top concern with the Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives, yet they continue to move forward with project development and deployment without fully addressing this critical issue. As a result, they ignore an IoT security paradox: the significant efficiency gains they seek would be undone if IoT-enabled processes failed due to security issues.<\/p>\n

Solving this paradox can help companies truly unleash IoT innovation. Enabling IoT security at scale would empower leaders to deploy IoT across a myriad of applications, rather than taking an incremental approach to adoption and bootstrapping security across each initiative. It would also give them the confidence to manage millions of sensors and IoT devices without concern that they could be compromised, sabotaging business plans and customer confidence. But how could that happen?<\/p>\n

Our recent research, IoT Signals<\/em><\/a>, explores IoT adoption and maturity, surveying 3,000 leading business and technology decision-makers about their experiences. Like many analyst reports, this research found that security is a top concern: Nearly 97 percent of respondents have security concerns when implementing IoT projects.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s behind the IoT security paradox?<\/h2>\n

Among this group, 85 percent of IoT decision-makers have at least begun an IoT initiative and 74 percent of respondents are already using their IoT initiative. When these leaders then look at expanding IoT gains, security slides into fifth place with only 19 percent naming it their top concern. Instead, respondents worry most that complexity and technical challenges (38 percent), lack of budget and staff resources (29 percent), lack of knowledge (29 percent), and an inability to find the right solutions (28 percent) will impede progress.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s behind this IoT security paradox? It\u2019s likely that company IoT teams view IoT as an innovation play and are more focused on experimenting to gain business advantages than they are on designing security from the ground up. These teams rely on built-in device security features or management tools, believing that they can solve for security after IoT initiatives gain direction and traction. As a result, they may lack the same sense of urgency that IT teams have when they use DevSecOps to design and test security-hardened IT systems before deploying them.<\/p>\n

But is that wise? Media and analyst reports state that IoT incidents are on an upswing, with unsecured IoT devices or applications implicated in a growing number of all IoT breaches. In addition, third-party solutions and platforms have compromised customer security and privacy. Companies\u2019 fears of DDoS attacks due to zombie devices have understandably given way to concerns about data privacy. Physical security of assets and facilities and cyber hackers who use IoT vulnerabilities to play the long game are lurking in company networks to steal valuable data and IP over months and years.<\/p>\n

The top three IoT security worries<\/h2>\n

Thus, it makes sense to be mindful about IoT security. In our survey, decision-makers say their top three IoT security concerns are:<\/p>\n