Most IT security teams believe their IoT devices are not secure

The majority of IT security teams believe that a key gap in their company’s overall security strategy is their inability to identify attacks that use IoT devices as the point of entry, according to a global study conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of HPE’s Aruba.

In fact, more than three-quarters of respondents believe their IoT devices are not secure, with 75% stating that even simple IoT devices pose a threat. Two-thirds of respondents admitted they have little or no ability to protect their “things” from attacks.

The Ponemon Institute study, entitled “Closing the IT Security Gap with Automation & AI in the Era of IoT,” surveyed 4,000 security and IT professionals across the Americas, Europe and Asia to understand what makes security deficiencies so hard to fix, and what types of technologies and processes are needed to stay a step ahead of bad actors within the new threat landscape.

“Despite massive investments in cybersecurity programs, our research found most businesses are still unable to stop advanced, targeted attacks — with 59% believing they are not realizing the full value of their defense arsenal, which ranges from 10 to 75 security solutions,” Ponemon Institute chairman Larry Ponemon said.

“The situation has become a ‘perfect storm,’ with nearly half of respondents saying it’s very difficult to protect complex and dynamically changing attack surfaces, especially given the current lack of security staff with the necessary skills and expertise to battle today’s persistent, sophisticated, highly trained, and well-financed attackers”

The research revealed that in the quest to protect data and other high-value assets, security systems incorporating machine learning and other AI-based technologies are essential for detecting and stopping attacks that target users and IoT devices.

The majority of APAC respondents polled for the report agree that security products with AI functionality will help to reduce false alerts (66%), increase their team’s effectiveness (62%), provide greater investigation efficiencies (57%) and advance their ability to more quickly discover and respond to stealthy attacks (53%).