The IoT has become part and parcel of our everyday lives. It connects customers with their favourite brands, increases the efficiencies of business operations, and even manages airport passenger flows.
However, as these changes unfold before our eyes, the true value of the IoT has yet to truly surface. As a recent BI Intelligence study predicts, the IoT will release nearly 25 million connected smart devices into the sphere by 2020. Considering the achievements made so far, who knows what the potential benefits could be derived over the coming years.
The spanner in the works, as is so often the case in our increasingly digitised and technical world, is that of security – currently presenting the primary obstacle to IoT adoption. This shouldn’t be seen as a surprise given that, according to Forrester, more than half a million IoT devices face being compromised this year.
Clearly this is concerning, emphasising how frequently cyber-attackers are gaining access to data or performing operations by imitating valid users. The statistic also highlights the critical nature regarding IoT authentication. That is, if you are unaware of the device you are connecting with, then protecting the potentially sensitive data being shared or the transactions being conducted, becomes very difficult indeed.