Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
17th April 2024 Issue no. 701
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How the 'insecurity of things' creates the next wave of security opportunities
By Mahendra Ramsinghani
More than 5 billion IoT devices were installed in 2015. Gartner estimates this will grow to 20 billion by 2020. Unfortunately, experts agree that security is not only an afterthought, but often is actively resisted and circumvented.
IoT devices are attractive to hackers because they have very weak login credentials, are "on 24/7" and have little to no secure communication channels. Hackers have started using these compromised devices to launch DDoS attacks, and even sell Instagram and Twitter robo "likes" for the vain.
Data from an HP IoT study shows that 80 percent of IoT devices failed to require passwords of sufficient complexity and length. As much as 70 percent of the devices did not encrypt communications. And 60 percent of these devices raised security concerns with their user interfaces. In an OpenDNS IoT study, 23 percent of respondents said they have no mitigating controls to prevent unauthorized device access in their company's networks.
29th June 2016