A survey conducted by Ponemon in 2018 found that 97 percent of security professionals thought that a cyber attack vectoring from an insecure device could be “catastrophic” for the business. They also found that only 15 percent had bothered to do an inventory of the IoT devices, which were indeed connected to their systems. And only half had protocols to disconnect high-risk devices upon detection.
The survey stresses the importance of addressing this vulnerability:
“With the proliferation of IoT devices in the enterprise, managing third-party risks to sensitive and confidential data has become a herculean task. As revealed in The Second Annual Study on the Internet of Things (IoT): A New Era of Third-Party Risk, companies are deeply concerned that failure to prevent a data breach or cyber attack due to an unsecured IoT device would have catastrophic consequences.”
There are other surveys that reveal that 97% of companies see a strong approach to IoT security as a key competitive differentiator.
In this very competitive market, nailing down IoT could make or break a company. And there is opportunity for some healthy competitive market gain, as it seems less than half have the capability of even detecting an IoT threat.
Following best practice from NIST, for example, will help you build a real-time inventory of all connected devices. But you can get affordable, expert help to streamline this process, so it doesn’t suck in all your resources and time.
If you want to improve your IoT security strategy, reach out to our experts at TBG Security. We are here to help.
Just to highlight the risks of IOT devices, the folks at Gemalto have put this infographic together.