The Internet of Things (IoT) has been making some amazing innovations over the past several years, bringing everything from coffeepots to cars online. The only thing that rivals the innovation in this industry, however, is the number of stories about security flaws, hacks, and other related issues. IoT devices are rarely secured properly, which leaves consumers vulnerable to hacking. It also leaves the rest of the world vulnerable since hacked IoT devices are often used to launch DDoS attacks.
Given the near constant barrage of stories about the risks that unsecured IoT devices present, it seems like those in the tech industry would be concerned. According to a new study from MIT Sloan Management Review, however, that does not seem to be the case.
They surveyed 1480 IT professionals, managers, and executives about IoT security. Just 34% of them responded that they think IoT data needs to be better secured than it currently is. This is despite the fact that more than 70% of respondents said that their organization is either not effective at all, or neither effective or ineffective at IoT security.
In a way, this reminds me of how the industry seemed to feel about digital ad fraud many years ago. Everyone knew it was happening, but the money was flowing in so strongly that nobody really seemed to care. This left many ad networks and other marketing professionals behind in the fight against fraud. It seems quite likely that history is repeating itself with the IoT devices. The results, however, could be much worse given how many of these devices are being made, and what hackers could do with control over them.
Hopefully companies and other professionals will wise up before the problem escalates, but it doesn’t seem likely at this point.
