IoT security spending to hit £1bn this year - Gartner

Survey finds that nearly 20 per cent of organisations had at least one IoT-based attack in the past three years

Worldwide spending on Internet of Things (IoT) security will reach $1.5bn (£1bn) in 2018, a 28 per cent increase from 2017 spending of $1.2bn (£849m), according Gartner forecasts.

A recent CEB, now Gartner, survey found that nearly 20 per cent of organisations had at least one IoT-based attack in the past three years.

"In IoT initiatives, organisations often don't have control over the source and nature of the software and hardware being utilised by smart connected devices," said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner.

"We expect to see demand for tools and services aimed at improving discovery and asset management, software and hardware security assessment, and penetration testing."

Contu said organisations will look to increase their understanding of the implications of externalising network connectivity.

"These factors will be the main drivers of spending growth for the forecast period with spending on IoT security expected to reach $3.1bn (£2.2bn) in 2021."

Despite the steady year-over-year growth in worldwide spending, Gartner predicts that through 2020, the biggest inhibitor to growth for IoT security will come from a lack of prioritisation and implementation of security best practices and tools in IoT initiative planning. This will hamper the potential spend on IoT security by 80 per cent, claimed Gartner.

"Although IoT security is consistently referred to as a primary concern, most IoT security implementations have been planned, deployed and operated at the business-unit level, in cooperation with some IT departments to ensure the IT portions affected by the devices are sufficiently addressed," said Contu.

"However, coordination via common architecture or a consistent security strategy is all but absent, and vendor product and service selection remains largely ad hoc, based upon the device provider's alliances with partners or the core system that the devices are enhancing or replacing."