Internet of things: Opportunity or Insecurity

Despite the marketing hype, IoT remains a buzzword with blurred edges. It means different things to different organisations – and even within the same business, it can mean different things to different divisions. In addition, while there are massive opportunities in this mash-up of data from machine, enterprise, environment and social, securing that data is going to be a giant headache.

We often ask attendees on IT and security roundtables what they think are the most significant data security and privacy concerns for their business around the Internet of Things.

They tell us that rapidly growing businesses, combined with customers expecting great agility, bring security issues. Many end up with a complicated hybrid architecture landscape as a result, and the vast amount of data that IoT brings will surely add to the complexity. But there’s confidence data issues will be solved with moves to a collaborative industry-wide approach to help compliance, the ability of cloud to enable scaleability and advances in storage bringing cheaper and better technology on stream.

Where we still hear a lot negativity around IoT is in terms of security – the so-called Internet of Insecure Things, or as the security firm Kaspersky labelled it: the Internet of Crappy Things. Privacy risks will arise in the way data is collected and security concerns in the route it takes to the provider. And there is no silver bullet yet to effectively mitigate these threats.

MeetTheBoss TV editor Adam Burns discusses IoT and security