Gartner analysts have confirmed that global spending on Internet of Things (IoT) security will reach $348 million in 2016 – marking a 23.7 percent increase from $281.5 million in 2015.
Although overall spending is expected to be moderate, at least initially, Gartner analysts say IoT security market spending will increase at a faster rate after 2020, as improved skills, organizational change and more scalable service options improve execution.
“The market for IoT security products is currently small, but it is growing as both consumers and businesses start using connected devices in ever greater numbers,” explained Ruggero Contu, a research director at Gartner. “[We] forecast that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 11.4 billion by 2018. However, considerable variation exists among different industry sectors as a result of different levels of prioritization and security awareness.”
In addition, says Contu, more than 25 percent of identified attacks in enterprises will involve the IoT by 2020; even as the IoT is expected to account for less than 10 percent of IT security budgets. As such, security vendors will be challenged to provide usable IoT security features, despite limited budgets and a decentralized approach to early IoT implementations. Interestingly, vendors are also expected to “focus too much” on identifying vulnerabilities and exploits, rather than exploring segmentation and other long-term methods of better protecting the IoT.
As we’ve previously discussed on Rambus Press, the burgeoning IoT is expected to be the next big market for cyber security. Indeed, according to analysts at ABI Research, the IoT security ecosystem is expanding – with vendors finding their way into three primary groups. These include hardware (chipset/SoC/microcontroller), firmware/software (embedded OS/RTOS/hypervisor), and applications (platform/cloud/service/analytics) across a wide range of verticals, including automotive, smart home, healthcare, and energy.
According to Michela Menting, Research Director at ABI Research, there is increasing interest – and requirements – for improved levels of security to be designed into products, devices, and networks to protect data, combat fraud, and prevent criminal hacking.
“Promising opportunities, and undeniably challenges, will center on securing assets, protecting data, and ensuring privacy,” she explained.
As Menting points out, standardization and guideline developments are still at a relatively nascent stage. Indeed, numerous groups, including the Cloud Security Alliance, the Trusted Computing Group, the OWASP IoT Project, the IEE, GSMA, NFC Forum, ISO, GlobalPlatform, and IoT Security Foundation, among others, are working on different aspects of security standards, from hardware design to network connectivity.
“When mapping out these new standards, it is important to keep in mind numerous considerations, such as small footprints, lightweight agents, low energy consumption, mobile assets, and permeable networks,” Menting concluded.
Interested in learning more about securing the IoT? You can check out our article archive on the subject here.
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