With the aid of IoT, many businesses are expected to transition into digital businesses. But in order to protect their IoT enabled systems, organizations will have to take new measures to ensure privacy and security. Only then will it be possible to take this giant leap into the world of digital enterprise.
In a recent summit on risk and security management, Gartner predicted that 20% of businesses by 2017 will have taken measures to provide security solutions to their IoT-enabled devices. While IoT enables organizations to expand their services from moving unconnected physical objects to connected digital devices, the subject of cyber attacks on organizations becomes an issue of unprecedented concern. As a result, enterprises will have to invest in upgrading and widening the scope of their security solutions in order to keep themselves fit and unharmed.
Gartner also says that global spending on IT security is set to increase by 8.2 percent in 2015 to $77 billion, and the world will spend $101 billion on information security in 2018. While it may seem viable for organizations to invest on grounds of security concerns it may also come off being too costly an affair. Which implies that it could deter many businesses from getting involved to take such a step in the first place.
Regardless of this, a study conducted by 451 Research’s new “Voice of the Enterprise: Information Security” (based on responses from over 1,000 IT professionals, primarily in North America and EMEA) found that spending on security remains strong with 37 percent of enterprise security managers expecting to increase their budget in the next 90 days. Only 4 percent of enterprises are decreasing security spending.
The year 2015, at the outset, registered an event which surfaced the concern of cybersecurity to a whole new level. It was in November when Sony Pictures reported to have fallen victim to a cyber attack supposedly perpetrated by North Korea. The event forced a majority of IT security experts to look into their preparation for the worst. Furthermore, the percentage of companies having a formal plan to address such a threat is expected to see a rise from 0 to 40 within the span of three years.
Gartner also states that the attack on Sony Pictures has not only caused companies to reconsider their already placed security but also shifted the focus of companies’ perception of the best form of defence.
Many of the enterprises where IoT is likely to entrench itself use old industrial systems which would necessitate the need of deploying old and new security measures. It also means that in order to successfully employ security to IoT devices, assessing each and every vulnerability will have to be of highest priority. Naturally, the process of moving these unconnected physical objects to connected digital devices—while maintaining high-end security—will render the task painstaking and quite complicated. But nonetheless, the smooth running of digital enterprises will ensure that investment in security will be worth the investment
