Businesses find IoT devices hard to secure

Internet of things (IoT) is expected to make an enormous impact on pretty much every industry in the upcoming months and years, but it seems as organizations don’t really know how to secure their devices. This is according to a new report by ForeScout Technologies, which surveyed 201 senior IT decision makers in the UK, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

First, the report says the threat surface is going to increase dramatically. An average business will operate 7,000 IoT devices in the next 18 months, which is "far more" than what the average company is used to securing and defending. Second, almost two thirds (65 percent) have "quite", "little", or "no" confidence in identifying and controlling their IoT devices. And third, the biggest challenge seems to be having IT functions working together.

"The staggering growth of IoT is creating both value and risks for enterprise organizations", says Jan Hof, international marketing director, ForeScout Technologies. "While IoT is recognized by many as an opportunity to improve and streamline business processes, there are associated security risks that need to be addressed – first and foremost through visibility of devices as soon as they connect to the network. You cannot secure what you cannot see".

Of course, ForeScout Technologies being the agentless security solution company, says this is the only way to tackle the problem. Almost two thirds (64 percent) of respondents said being able to discover and classify IoT devices without using agents was "extremely" or "quite" important.

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