2016/02/16 Strategy Analytics: IoT 2016 Security Survey Shows 70% of Firms Spend Little Time Securing Data Assets

Security Survey Shows Enterprises' Vulnerability: Only 6% of Firms Can Identify and Repel Hack Attacks in Advance

Boston, MA – February 9, 2016 - Despite the heightened potential for increased hacks posed by Internet of Things (IoT) deployments, a new Strategy Analytics Report, “IoT 2016 Security Threats and Trends: Perilous Porous and Pernicious” found that 70% of IT Departments spend less than 20% of their time securing the corporate network and data assets. 

The Strategy Analytics security Report is based on an independent survey of over 600 firms worldwide. The results showed that 56% of respondents acknowledged that their firms experienced or might have had a successful breach in the last 12 months, compared to 39% that said their networks did not suffer any security breaches.

“The survey results are a huge wake-up call. IoT environments exponentially increase the size of the attack vector since companies have so many more devices, end points and applications to secure,” said Laura DiDio, SA Director of IoT Systems Research and Consulting and author of the Report. “IoT deployments can potentially be very risky business. The survey results also revealed that 44% of corporations that got hacked were unable to determine, the source or the type of security attack or the duration of the breach, which is alarming,” DiDio added.   

Other key survey findings include:

-       The survey data indicated that only 7% of firms’ IT departments devote >50% of their time to security.

-       A 56% majority of respondents said “end user carelessness” is the biggest security threat to their IoT networks followed by 42% who cited “malware.”

“Given the growth in edge processing, fog computing and edge analytics, the challenge of intelligence moving to the edge will continue to grow,” said Andrew Brown, Executive Director IoT and Enterprise Research. “It is imperative that security should be “built in” to any IoT offering, rather than leaving it to multiple vendors that are responsible for implementing security into only their part of the stack,” Brown added.

Key vertical segments covered in the survey include F.I.R.E (Financial, Insurance, Real Estate), Healthcare, Manufacturing and Retail.
 Source: Strategy Analytics