The rise of IoT and the associated security risks

The proliferation of IoT devices in the workplace presents a huge security risk and if new research from ForeScout Techologies is anything to go by, organisations are ill-prepared to deal with this rise and the associated threat. Even worse, by the time some of the IoT devices reach businesses, they are already vulnerable due to the lack of industry regulations and current approach to development. In order to stem the security issues with IoT applications and devices, there needs to be a step change in the development process. It has simply never been more important that these devices and platforms be developed securely in the first instance.

Businesses are not ready to secure IoT

There is no doubt that IoT is on the rise; Gartner has estimated that there will be 6.4 billion connected things globally by the end of this year and projects that figure to reach 21 billion by 2020. So for every ten IoT devices today, there will be approximately thirty in just four years time. But the poll from ForeScout clearly suggests that businesses are not prepared to deal with these devices with 85 per cent of the 350 IT professionals surveyed saying that they weren’t sure if they could detect an IoT device as soon as it connects to the network. Of course, as soon as an infected device connects to the network, the security of the entire network is compromised. Continue reading this article on ITProPortal.com.