Among companies struggling with IoT, 25% report security related losses

92% of businesses expect Internet of Things (IoT) to be extremely important in their company within two years. However, new research from DigiCert indicates that many are struggling to secure the technology.

IoT adoption is on the rise

New data shows that the annual spend on IoT in the enterprise rose to $4.6 million this year – an average increase of 4% from 2017. While there was a rise in 2018, 86% of respondents expect this figure to increase within the next 1-2 years. In a recent KPMG survey, the majority of global technology leaders also said that IoT will drive business transformation over the next three years.

A further 17% said that IoT will also enable the next indispensable consumer technology. Despite this positive growth, DigiCert found that 8 in 10 businesses cite security as their greatest IoT concern. Although many enterprises have invested in IoT, less have invested in IoT security. Among those companies struggling the most with IoT adoption, 25% reported IoT-related losses of at least $34 million in the last two years. Moreover, 100% of bottom-tier enterprises experienced at least one security incident.

The state of the IoT security market

It is therefore no surprise that Grand View Research expects the IoT security market to reach $9.88 billion by 2025. Back in 2017, however, the market was worth a mere $1.24 billion. On the other hand, DigiCert data shows that many companies perceive IoT security as far too expensive to invest in. In terms of expense, 52% said that certificates were too expensive, while 61% said code signing, and 65% cited encryption.

Despite this, 82% of respondents also said that they were somewhat to extremely concerned about IoT's security challenges. The majority of respondents (59%) also suffered from lost productivity and monetary damages as a result of IoT-related security incidents. Data breaches were the most common incident, with 69% of bottom-tier companies experiencing this. 68% of enterprises also suffered from malware or ransomware, which was also the most common incident in top-tier companies at 15%.

IoT could become a "major burden"

The exponential complexity of IoT could also damage a company's performance, according to Dynatrace. The software intelligence firm released a report outlining the major concerns of CIOs when it comes to implementing IoT. Of this pool, 57% said there was a risk that organisations could roll out IoT without a performance plan.

Furthermore, 69% said that IoT will become a major performance burden. According to DigiCert, companies are six times more likely to suffer from a DDoS attack with IoT. These enterprises are also six times more likely to experience data breaches, and four and a half times more likely to experience malware or ransomware attacks.

Mike Nelson, VP of IoT Security at DigiCert said that it is "vital for companies to strike a balance between gaining efficiencies and maintaining security and privacy.” He added that “this study shows that enterprises that are implementing security best practices have less exposure to the risks and resulting damages from attacks on connected devices."