With the growing trend of the Internet of Things, there has been a rising concern for data security. The more devices you connect, the more your information becomes vulnerable to a target of people who want to make a profit from your data. In a hyper-connected world, it becomes crucial to ensure the well-being of the internet ecosystem to ensure data security and prevent malicious activities. For IoT device users, abiding by basic security practices, changing default security codes, blocking unnecessary remote access are some of the ways of securing a network. However, across the rapidly changing enterprise landscape, vendors and device manufacturers are taking a broader approach and investing a huge sum for adapting advanced IoT security devices as security is top of mind for most organizations. Moreover, as networks are now highly distributed due to remote branches, mobile employees, and even at home, the cybersecurity leaders are moving past beyond securing connected devices and instead of creating more resilient networks adapting IoT security devices. While traditional IT security is designed to catch threats, the challenge of scale and complexity would be impossible to solve with a uniform standard for device security. Thus, keeping IoT devices safe will require securing the networks themselves, with the increasing digital adoption and changing IT landscape.

According to TechSci Research on “Global IoT Security Market By Component (Solution, Service), By Deployment (Cloud, On-premise), By Enterprise (SME, Large Enterprise), By Security Type (Network Security, End-point Security, Application Security, Cloud Security and Others), By Application (Smart Manufacturing, Smart Energy & Utilities, Connected Logistics, Smart Home & Consumer Electronics, etc.), By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025”, Global IoT Security market is expected to grow at a robust pace of around 17% until 2025 due to the growing demand for cloud-based services for authentication process and increasing number of malware attacks on IoT devices. Increasing expenditure by the major vendors operating in the industry on Internet of Things and enhancements is anticipated to positively impact the growth of market over the next few years. However, absence of standardization for IoT devices and lack of awareness of security risks might negatively impact the market growth.

Major IoT security technologies 

 IoT network security

With 5.45 million new IoT devices getting connected every day, a standard PC security and anti-virus solutions are not enough to counter security threats. As IoT networks are predominately becoming wireless now, this makes security far more challenging with wired networks. However, IoT network security combines traditional tools of data protection with complex device capabilities, protocols, and standards to create a safe network. 

·       IoT authentication 

IoT devices must be authenticated by legitimate users to ensure a safe authentication of one user into multiple devices. IoT security can be successfully achieved via identity maintenance and access control. Unlike most enterprises that involve human being entering credentials, advanced IoT security such as embedded sensors provide the ability for users with more robust mechanisms such as two-factor authentication, biometrics, and digital certificates. 

·       IoT encryption 

Encryption is a crucial part of complete security management process, which is required to prevent unauthorized access to data and devices. IoT data encryption makes data inaccessible for hackers with the help of properly designed cryptographic algorithms. The IoT encryption tool is commonly used for a wide range of key lifecycle management processes to help establish a powerful security system together. 

·       IoT security analytics 

Various IoT security companies assist in collecting, aggregating, monitoring, and reporting on data existing on all IoT devices with a basic analytical toolkit such as up-to-date trending technologies, AI, machine learning and big data. Some IoT security software assist clients on all process stages of working with APIs, and guarantee a safe storage of sensitive information, empowered by rich authentication and authorization capabilities. 

IoT API security 

Most software and hardware designers access devices via APIs thus securing these devices require ability to authenticate and authorize data movement between IoT devices and back-end systems, and applications. IoT API security protects the integrity of data and applications using document rested APIs as well as detecting potential threats and attacks. 

Top IoT (Internet of Things) Security Breaches 

• Networking giant, Ubiquiti suffered major Data Breach in “certain” IT systems hosted by a third-party cloud provider. The Data Breach exposed user’s data including their name, email name, email address, and the one-way encrypted password to the user’s account, address, and phone number. The company advised affected customers to change their passwords and enable two-factor authentication as a counteractive measure. 
• Webdev tutorials site, SitePoint admitted data breach after one million user credentials were sold on a hacking forum. Provider of web development tutorials and books, SitePoint believes that stolen passwords are safe as they have been hashed with bcrypt algorithm and salted, making the password cracking a lengthy process for the hackers. After addressing the intrusion and data breach, the company advised users to initiate a password reset on all accounts and create new ones that are at least ten characters long. 
• More than 3 billion user credentials were posted online as a part of data breach compilation, pulling together stolen user data from previous breaches and leaks from companies like Netflix and LinkedIN. The collection of user data is being dubbed as COMB, the Compilation of Many Breaches. 
• Capcom, the ‘Resident Evil’ gaming developer company revealed the recent data breach compromised the personal data of 16,406 people. The company also ascertained that potential maximum number of customers, business partners, and external parties whose information has been compromised with the data breach of approx. 390,000 people. Gaming has been increasingly becoming target of cyberattackers, with major gaming companies such as Minecraft, Roblox, Animal Jam, etc, reported breaches or hacks in several months. 
• Juspay, Amazon and Swiggy Payment processor data breach led to 100 million records circulating on the dark web, exposing sensitive customer information. The company acknowledged the data breach releasing a statement saying it was the victim of cyberattack on one of its isolated storage systems, where an old unrecycled AWS access key was exploited. Besides exposing the 100 million “non-anonymized” customers’ user metadata, Juspay confirmed that 35 million records with masked card data and card fingerprint were also breached.

Developments in Global IoT security market 

•        Akamai Technologies prepares to acquire Inverse, a provider of zero trust and secure access service edge solutions for enterprise IoT customers. The objective of the M&A deal is to gain more context and visibility into the device landscape to know with what devices people are communicating and their typical behaivour. By combining the inverse device fingerprint data repository with Akamai’s security data, both the organizations aim to create an industry leading solution to enhance IoT security within the landscape of connected devices. 
•     Sequitur Labs, leader in IoT security for connected devices has joined hands with STMicroelectronics Partner Program to create Sequitur’s EmSPARK™ Security Suite for technical and business collaboration between ST and third-party companies to ensure protection of their valuable, sensitive data assets. The device enables silicon hardware security features, providing essential trust services such as secure storage, payload verification and firmware updates.

•        NXP has launched flexible IoT cloud platform, EdgeLock 2GO to securely manage and connect edge devices, designed for zero-touch, secure deployment, and security maintenance of IoT devices. The platform allows customers control access to their devices and optimize costs while providing advanced device security. The IoT cloud platform also provide customers to register their devices on Amazon Web Services using Just-in-time provisioning and registration. 

Impact of COVID-19 on global IoT security market

With the outbreak of COVID-19, there have been a sudden increase in cyberattacks as the global workforce has transitioned largely to remote operations models. A shortage of company-owned laptops forced many workers to utilize their personal computers to access corporate networks, which lacked endpoint protection and desktop security, making the devices vulnerable to attacks. Despite the rise in cyberattacks, the rise in IoT adoption has further propelled the demand for IoT security devices, accelerating the growth of global IoT security market in the coming years. As long as the organizations remain agile and quick in their approach to ensure data security employing advanced IoT systems, they will be able to sustain the fight with pandemic opportunists.

Conclusion

It’s a no-brainer to expect more security breaches with the increasing adoption of IoT and connected devices. The industry needs to come up with more advanced, intelligent, and secure IoT security devices, leveraging artificial intelligence and integrating new technology.

According to TechSci research on “Global IoT Device Management Market By Component (Software v/s Service), By Deployment Mode (On-Premise v/s Cloud), By Organization Size (Large Enterprises v/s SMEs), By Application (Smart Retail, Connected Health, Connected Logistics, Smart Utilities, Smart Manufacturing, Others), By Company, By Region, Forecast & Opportunities, 2025”, Global IoT device management market is expected to grow at a robust rate of around 22% during the forecast period. The global IoT device management market is driven by the increasing incidences of cyber-crimes and cyber threats which has led to the increase in security concerns within enterprises. This in turn increases the need to deploy IoT solutions for ensuring organizational safety and security thereby driving the growth of IoT device management market during forecast period. Additionally, increasing penetration of communication and networking technologies further fosters the market growth. Furthermore, the extensive adoption of sensors is expected to create lucrative opportunities for the market growth through 2025. However, lack of IT infrastructure and finances in the emerging countries can hamper the market growth over the next few years. Moreover, lack of standardization also impedes the market growth